


Bright Like the Sun

by RcA



Series: Carnivores [6]
Category: Big Bang (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Animal Traits, Blood and Gore, Creature Fic, Dominance/submission, Established Relationship, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Knotting, M/M, Minor DaeRi, Pack Dynamics, Polyamory, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-16 00:18:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 54,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9265460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RcA/pseuds/RcA
Summary: In times of plenty, Seunghyun and Daesung and the rest of their close-knit pack are living life to the fullest and loving it... until a brash young wolf named Seungri comes crashing in, upsetting the balance and forcing them to take a long, hard look at what it means to be a family.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> One more, y'all. A nasty case of writer's block has kept this one at bay for too long. 
> 
> This piece takes place a year or two before [Carnivores](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7731763); the exact amount of time is a little open to interpretation. It is situated solidly between [New Heights](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7884583) and [Laying Claim](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8402689).
> 
> I realized somewhat belatedly, after writing The First of Many, that after all the events of Carnivores and especially Dreams Like Ashes I wanted to revisit the boys' lives before everything went downhill. I wanted to see them back out in nature, living like wolves as they did before they were forced to move on. There are a couple of songs from the Dreams Like Ashes soundtrack that played a big part in bringing this about, songs with lines like, "crying softly for the way it was before" and "wanting all we left behind." I decided it was time to take another look at just how it was before, and just what they left behind, beyond what was shown in Carnivores. In addition, I've been itching to explore Seungri's introduction to the pack for ages, so finally getting to play with that. Please enjoy!
> 
> Just as a reminder, this is NOT A/B/O or Omegaverse. The terms "alpha" and "omega" as they are used here reflect the highest and lowest ranking members of a wolf pack, nothing more. Furthermore, they are fluid labels, subject to change. For example, though it would be unusual, a person can be an alpha in one pack and an omega in another, or vice versa.
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** This is a fictional work based on the public personas of real people, over whom I make no claim and to whom I mean no harm.
> 
>  
> 
>   
> 

 

 

 

 

Daesung is stalking through the brush, the only sound he makes the crunch of grass beneath his feet with every measured step he takes.  
  
He is moving as swiftly and as silently as he knows how. Today they are hunting, he and his pack, hot on the trail of a fleet-footed doe. The others are already in active pursuit, have been for some time now. As always, Daesung brings up the rear.  
  
They must be far from him by now. After all, he is only here for backup, his efforts seldom needed. But as far as Daesung can tell, the hunt is still on, for he has not heard his packmates' cries signaling the end. And for that reason, he must remain vigilant. He must, and he will. If their quarry doubles back and manages to evade the others-- unlikely, but it does happen-- Daesung must be present as the pack's last line of offense. In such a scenario, he is their final chance at a meal.  
  
A sound to his right startles him, a crackle and pop like brittle branches snapping-- something large is crashing through the foliage, coming at him fast. His gums itch as long canines and claws emerge in tandem with the sudden spiking of his pulse.  
  
A deer plunges at breakneck speed through the treeline and into the clearing where he stands. _She's here._ By the way her large ears swivel suddenly in his direction, she seems as startled to see him as he is to see her.  
  
Their eyes meet and hold.  
  
There is no time to think, only act. Even a second of hesitation could cost them the hunt-- it has many times before. But it cannot happen today. Today Daesung feels hollowed out with hunger, the ache of it pulling and tugging at his core. Today he and his pack _will_ eat, today they will fill their stomachs with meat still warm and blood still hot, flowing straight from this creature's veins-- today they _must_.  
  
The doe runs at Daesung-- she never stopped, her flight path taking her right at him. She can't correct in time, she is moving too fast, legs born to run closing the distance between them almost faster than Daesung can keep up with.  
  
He lunges at her.  
  
Even as his feet leave the ground, he knows the move was sloppy. The angle is all wrong, he is going to hit head-on, they are going to _collide_ \--  
  
_This is going to hurt_ , he thinks just before impact.  
  
They barrel into each other so hard it knocks the breath out of him, the doe careening into him while Daesung wraps himself around her, arms locking over the back of her neck and feet struggling to find purchase in the tall grass. His claws dig in deep, past fur and flesh until they hook at last in taut muscle. It is all Daesung can do to cling to his prey as she bleats out an anguished cry. Under their combined weight her slender legs give out, and together they hit the ground hard, her weight atop him punching the air from his lungs all over again.  
  
As he struggles to breathe his prey struggles to rise. The deer gathers deceptively narrow legs under her, stronger than they look, and the need to act fast infuses in Daesung a fresh burst of strength.  
  
He is too close to finishing this hunt to let this one go. His pack is counting on him!  
  
So he lurches to his knees and strikes at her again, swiping with clawed hands, scrabbling at her hide, their sickle-like tips raking through her thick winter coat and leaving deep gashes in the skin beneath.  
  
She bleeds, but it's not enough. Regains her footing. Crouches, a heartbeat away from springing out of reach.  
  
_I'm going to lose her_ , Daesung thinks frantically.  
  
Forcing his body into motion, he launches himself at his prey in one last, desperate attempt. His jaws close around her throat, right under the jaw where the hair is short, the skin soft and thin and so vulnerable. His teeth pierce it with ease, canines sinking in exquisitely deep-- and he is rewarded with a wash of hot blood that pours thick into his mouth, over his lip, and down the bottom half of his face.  
  
The doe kicks at him, fear and agony, driving her to fight back. Her hooves strike his chest and catch him in the ribs. Daesung winces in pain but does not let go. _He cannot let go_. His jaws clamp down further, sharp teeth rending flesh until he hits something solid-- not so unyielding as bone, but it resists his bite enough that he knows what he has reached: he has her windpipe in his jaws.  
  
He bites harder, crushing it, _squeezing_ it, and does not for even a second let up.  
  
The doe makes no sound, though she tries, for without air she is silenced. Soon her legs fold under her and, together, they meet the ground again... but slowly this time, sinking. Once Daesung has her down he pins her there, forcing her head into the grass, breathing hard and biting harder. His every labored breath sends frothy blood foaming over his tongue until... until...  
  
At last his prey ceases to struggle, blessedly still and silent under him while he breathes. Breathes and digs claws deeper into her hide, feels the coarse hair under his hands, the blood that coats his fingers and palms turning tacky to the touch as it dries. He smells it, he tastes it, he _feels_ it as the life leaves her, her heart quivering weakly in the cavity of her chest a final time before death, that permanent end, takes her.  
  
All around Daesung there is blood, the slicing action of his sharp teeth breaking blood vessels and spilling their contents across the ground, painting the grass a vibrant red. As for Daesung himself, he is coated in the stuff. Like a crimson mask it covers his face from nose to chin, spills down the length of his neck, soaks into the collar of his shirt and stains it red beyond repair. It saturates the knees of his jeans, the doe's blood dampening the denim, turning the fraying fabric black.  
  
For long, drawn-out minutes the doe does not move. And, crouched low over her lifeless body as he is, neither does Daesung.  
  
He did it. _He did it._  
  
A snapping of twigs in the woods behind him tells Daesung he will soon have company; even in his bloodlust he has the presence of mind to know who it is, the other's familiar scent giving him away long before he appears.  
  
Youngbae emerges. He stares down at Daesung and his catch with an unreadable expression.  
  
Daesung can't help it. At the other wolf's approach something primal rises in him, driving him further over the body of his prey, a natural instinct to guard his kill, his prize. And though he does not mean to, he curls his lip and _growls_ at Youngbae in warning, long and low and dangerous.  
  
It does strange things to wolves, the bloodlust. He doesn't mean to. But that doesn't mean it won't go unpunished.  
  
The sound has scarcely left his throat when Youngbae strides over and swats him sharply over the back of the head. It shocks Daesung out of his stupor, the blow opening his jaws in surprise, and he rolls away and onto his side with a sound bordering on a whimper.  
  
From savage to submissive in two seconds flat. This is life as Daesung has always known it.  
  
"Don't growl at me," Youngbae scolds, narrowing his eyes at him. Daesung turns and peers up at him, a little dazed as he comes back to himself.  
  
"Sorry. Didn't mean to," is his soft apology.  
  
 He sits up stiffly and stares down at the doe's cooling carcass, at brilliant swathes of blood seeping into the soil under her. It isn't pretty, but it doesn't have to be. It's dinner today, and breakfast and lunch tomorrow, and whatever remains of the animal beyond that they can snack on for the rest of the week. They do what they can to keep hunger, their eternal foe, well at bay.  
  
"I did it," Daesung says slowly, his solo success finally dawning on him. He laughs, delighted, while his tail thumps the ground behind him in excitement. "I did it!"  
  
"You did," Youngbae agrees, the steely look gone, replaced with something happier as he grins right along with him.  
  
"That was... Damn," Daesung breathes, wide-eyed.  
  
Youngbae joins Daesung on the ground and ruffles his hair affectionately. His hand comes away soiled, red with splotches of fresh blood. He makes a face. "God, in your hair too? What did you do, roll in it?"  
  
Daesung ducks his head and paws at his hair, embarrassed. "Don't think so, but... I don't even fucking _know_ , Youngbae, it all happened so fast."  
  
"It usually does." Youngbae plucks at the deer's coat, rubbing her hair between curious fingers. "She spun around at some point and we lost sight of her. You got her when the rest of us couldn't. Good job."  
  
The smile he flashes him makes Daesung's heart swell up with pride. "She flew right at me," he says, a bloody grin stretching his mouth wide.  
  
Youngbae claps a firm hand over Daesung's thigh. It is as warm as his eyes as he says, "That's why you're here. Don't think that just because we have you at the back all the time you can't be useful."  
  
"I-- I just got lucky," Daesung stammers, Youngbae's warm praise suddenly reminding him that credit for the kill is not entirely his.  
  
An excited whoop and a loud holler from behind is all the warning they get before Seunghyun and Jiyong finally catch up to them, no doubt drawn by their elated voices and, of course, the scent of blood heavy in the air.  
  
"Shit, Daesung," Jiyong says, slowing to a kind of lazy saunter. "That thirst. Look at you! Save some for us, won't you?"  
  
"I don't think the goal was to drink it. I think he wanted to bathe in it," Seunghyun chimes in, a crooked grin tugging at his lips. "You're disgusting, Daesung."  
  
"You like it," Daesung retorts, laughing brightly. But Seunghyun is right. He must make for quite a sight.  
  
"Well, go on," Jiyong says to him, hands going to his hips expectantly.  
  
"But..."  
  
Seunghyun drops to the ground beside Daesung and shoves him playfully. "Your kill. You know how we do this. You go first."  
  
And yes, Daesung does know, but still he hesitates. Even after years with his new family, to eat first goes against everything he has ever known. This is not the usual way of things. A kill is made and it is the alpha who eats first, never the lower-ranked wolves. And _certainly_ not the omega.  
  
And yet Jiyong has always bragged about the unique quality of their close-knit pack, how they make their own rules and are all the better for it.  
  
"Just take a bite if it bothers you so much," Seunghyun says, encouraging him forward with an arm around his shoulders. "But make sure it's a big one. You earned it." He has never sounded so _proud_ and Daesung doesn't know what to do with the swell of emotion it triggers in him.  
  
He... He should do this. If not for himself, at least for Seunghyun, who seems to think the world of him.  
  
The others are watching him, waiting. Saliva floods Daesung's mouth and pools around his teeth the longer he stares, enticed but still so reluctant. It doesn't feel _right_. And yet he imagines the warm meat in his mouth, the weight of it on his tongue, sees himself swallowing it down and anticipates the satisfaction that will follow. Why are they making him do this? Can't someone else go first?  
  
Sweat begins to bead on his brow.  
  
Jiyong laughs suddenly. "You look like you just found worms in your food. Seriously, Daesung, how many times have we been over this? Don't make me force your face into it. Go ahead. _Eat_."  
  
And that's that-- their steady persuasion wins out. Daesung gets back down on hands and knees and buries his face in fur and flesh and does just that. Surrounded by his family who want nothing but the best for him, for all of them, he eats to his stomach's-- and his heart's-- content.  
  
Afterward, when the four of them have taken their fill, Seunghyun darts in and cleans Daesung with lips and tongue, clearing away remnants of blood and other juices with an enduring eagerness he only ever unleashes on Daesung. While he works Daesung holds himself perfectly still, the other wolf's sharp teeth grazing his skin from time to time in a lazy way. For Seunghyun _will_ bite at the slightest provocation-- sometimes with no provocation at all. It is a quality of his mate that Daesung both loves and hates, the way he gnaws on him like a young pup sharpening its teeth on an unfortunate stick.  
  
That trail of thought is fast abandoned when a tongue finds its way into his mouth, Seunghyun opening Daesung's mouth wide with his own and dipping inside to taste. Licking at teeth and gums and over the insides of Daesung's cheeks as far as he can reach without folding himself up and climbing inside.  
  
When they slide apart, Daesung licks the spit from the corners of his lips and pants, winded, "You know, if it's blood you're after..." He waves a hand at the carcass before them, stripped of its skin and picked apart, what they have not yet consumed of it gleaming wetly in the setting sun. "There's plenty more where that came from."  
  
"Tastes better like this," is Seunghyun's throaty reply. Then he dives in again and gulps down Daesung's answering groan with a new hunger, one that is not so easily fed. Daesung will gladly join Seunghyun in the chase, gorging on the abundance his mate has to offer him.  
  
Yeah, life as he knows it is pretty damn good.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
Seunghyun wakes, all senses on high alert.  
  
Instinct drives him to sit up in bed, rising silently from amid a nest of blankets, still so groggy he can barely see straight. But the fog of sleep is fading fast. He knows what he heard, that muffled sound just outside.  
  
Footsteps. Quiet and barely discernible even to his keen ears. Whatever-- or _who_ ever-- it is does not wish to be heard.  
  
There is a presence nearby, something malignant. Something that intends to do them harm. Something in him recognizes the presence of another wolf nearby.  
  
No, other _wolves_. Several of them. Many of them.  
  
His hand snakes out from beneath the blanket and finds Daesung, who still slumbers soundly beside him. It closes around his shoulder and he shakes his bedmate once, twice, insistent on waking him.  
  
"Daesung," he whispers with a note of rising urgency. "Wake up. _Wake up_."  
  
"Mm?" the other wolf hums softly, voice thick and syrupy with sleep.  
  
"Wolves, outside."  
  
Daesung goes very still. For a stiff moment even his breathing halts as alarm grips him. Then he sits up as well to push the blankets aside without a sound.  
  
That's one.  
  
But there is no need for him to rouse the others. On his other side Jiyong and Youngbae are already on their feet. To Seunghyun they nod before picking their way across the room, silent as shadows. After a cursory glance through the doorway and around the corner, the two of them slip out of sight.  
  
Beside him Daesung lets out an anxious breath. By the stubborn set of his jaw Seunghyun can see that he is fighting to find his courage.  
  
"Hey," he says in a low tone, squeezing at Daesung's bicep. "It'll be okay."  
  
"We have to fight?"  
  
"I know you don't like to. But we're gonna have to."  
  
Daesung replies with a wan smile.  
  
"We can do this. Stay with me," Seunghyun adds. Then, "Stay _behind_ me. Watch my back, okay?" Daesung nods and squares his shoulders, face grim but resolute.  
  
As far as Seunghyun knows-- and he thinks he knows a lot-- Daesung has never been involved in serious combat since he settled here, with them. Sure, they have chased away their fair share of trespassers, usually pairs passing through the area or the rare lone wolf scoping out the area. All such intruders flee readily when confronted, and to their knowledge, not one of them has returned.  
  
But never have they been faced with an entire pack, not since Daesung was brought into the fold. And never, ever has there been an ambush on their _home_.  
  
It's a bold move, one that Seunghyun will make sure they regret. He surges to his feet in anger, overtaken by the instinct to protect his home and everyone who dwells in it.  
  
No one fucks with his family and gets away with it. He will _enjoy_ watching these invaders suffer on the ends of his claws.  
  
And so, as one he and his packmates throw open their door and fly at the strings of wolves in their path, teeth and talons bared and ready to _fuck someone up_. They'll tear into the threat, open it up, and spill its blood-- and more if it comes to that.  
  
But it does not come to that. Instead, their would-be attackers turn tail and run, scattering into the night like roaches under a light. Youngbae manages to nab one, taking him to the ground with an impact that knocks the breath out of both of them and sends a cloud of dust swirling into the air.  
  
And just like that, the fight Seunghyun anticipated is over. He is honestly a little disappointed.  
  
All this adrenaline and no one to unload it on. Daesung appears at his side, breathing heavily while his hands flex, elongated claws clinking against each other with each pass. All geared up for a fight he didn't want.  
  
"Looks like you got your wish," Seunghyun grunts.  
  
"They're... gone?" Daesung says, astonished.  
  
"Looks like it." Seunghyun mutters, the fight in him fizzling out. Damn.  
  
A savage snarl reminds him that they did not reach the end of this encounter empty-handed. With curiosity he eyes the figure trapped under Youngbae.  
  
"All gone... All but one," he observes.  
  
It is a boy about their age. In the moonlight his hair seems to glow a bright white, paler than anything they've ever seen one of their kind. It's extraordinary, perhaps the most peculiar thing Seunghyun has ever seen. With his spine a seat for Youngbae's knee and his arms wrenched in a painful way behind his back, they have him suitably subdued. Unlike the rest of his pack, he cannot hope to run. And even if he could-- even if he did push to his feet and bolt into the nearby woods-- Seunghyun doubts he would go far. Youngbae is more than just quick on his feet; he all but _soars_ over the ground, their own _wolf with wings_ as Jiyong has taken to calling him fondly.  
  
"What do we have here?" Jiyong squats by their captive's head with a casual confidence. He pokes at the boy with a curious finger. "Hello, young wolf. What brings you and your pack to these parts?"  
  
The boy bares his teeth at them and _snarls_ , twisting viciously under Youngbae's hold.  
  
"Your pack ran off without you," Jiyong speaks down to him, unimpressed. "Fled into the cover of the woods like birds to the air. And they left you behind. What do you make of that?"  
  
" _Fuck_ you, I don't care," the boy snaps.  
  
"Me? What about them? They just _abandoned_ you," Jiyong says with mock disbelief.    
  
"Fuck them too," the boy growls, harsh and grating, "Hadn't been with that pack for long anyway."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Maybe I wanted to be rid of them. Maybe I-- goddamnit, get _off_ me," he spits, throwing his head back sharply to hit Youngbae. Youngbae's speed saves him, but a drop of their captive's spittle finds Jiyong's cheek.  
  
Their leader doesn't flinch, only blinks and calmly swipes it off with one delicate finger, considering the tantrum taking place before him.  
  
"Okay, suppose that's true. You're free now. They're not coming back for you," Jiyong begins almost serenely. "It's the middle of winter. How will you get by without a pack?"  
  
"Why do you care?"  
  
One of Jiyong's shoulders lifts in a lazy shrug. "I'm just curious. Tell me."  
  
"I don't know. I'll manage somehow," the boy says, anger shifting into something closer to petulance, and Seunghyun bites his lip to keep from laughing aloud. The boy is _sulking_.  
  
"All by yourself? You'll never make it alone. So sad," Jiyong croons in a mockery of pity.  
  
Youngbae jumps in, "You'll manage? That's big talk for someone so small." The boy cringes as Youngbae's knee grinds into the small of his back.  
  
"Small? You're one to talk," he bites back, and Seunghyun can't help it; he barks out a surprised laugh. Youngbae is not amused; in fact, he looks supremely offended. In retaliation, he wrenches the boy's arms back hard, pulling and only letting up when the boy grits his teeth and hisses in pain.  
  
"Say that again. I dare you," he growls into his captive's ear. The boy shows him his teeth but says nothing further, so Youngbae sits back, easing up a bit. "That's what I thought. Anyway, you don't have what it takes to survive alone."  
  
_Not many wolves do_ , Seunghyun thinks. He chances a look at Daesung who has remained silent throughout this entire exchange.  
  
"You don't know that," the boy says under his breath.  
  
Seunghyun cannot hold his silence any longer. "You've got spunk, kid. I like that," he says at last, striding toward the downed wolf. "Let me guess: mid-tier."  
  
"Something like that. I was working my way up," the boy says, now obediently limp in Youngbae's hold.  
  
Jiyong reaches down and ruffles his hair, a distinctly affectionate gesture. "What's your name, anyway?" he asks.  
  
"I don't have to tell you," the boy answers, dark eyes shining in open defiance.  
  
Jiyong's eyes seem to light up, something sparking in him at the challenge. "Alright, kid, listen up. We're not really the type to go around killing every wolf we meet, even though we probably should. I doubt you and your pack would have given us the same consideration had things gone... differently." He takes a moment to study the night sky, well-lit by a moon that is just shy of full, and so clear, not a cloud to be seen."Sure picked a bad night for an ambush. What was your alpha thinking?"  
  
The boy scowls at the ground, tail bristling in indignation.  
  
"The fact is you're on our land. And I think you knew that the moment you and your sorry pack set foot on it." Jiyong rises smoothly to his feet and takes a cool step back. "If we let you up-- if we let you go-- what will you do, I wonder?"  
  
"Run back to his pack with his tail between his legs, most likely," Seunghyun says with a mean grin. He glances at Daesung to gauge his reaction.  
  
But... Daesung isn't smiling. No, he is watching the boy on the ground closely with a face that is unexpectedly solemn. Seunghyun's grin gives way to a puzzled frown. Why so serious?  
  
The boy purses his lips in thought. "Shit, I don't know," he groans after a moment's indecision.  
  
"Here's a thought. How about you stick with us?" Jiyong says suddenly, clapping his hands together in a way that manages to be both gleeful and disturbing.  
  
"What the hell, Jiyong," Seunghyun grunts, and it gives him some satisfaction to see Daesung snap his head up to stare at their leader with the same surprised dismay. "This little shit just tried to break in and, what, rob us? Kill us? Both? Probably both. And you want to invite him in?"  
  
Jiyong shrugs, unconcerned. From his position atop the boy, still holding him with his weight, Youngbae says, "Jiyong, you know I love you and I trust you, but are you sure about this?"  
  
"It'll be fine. Oh, just let him up already," Jiyong instructs Youngbae, waving him off. "What's the worst he can do? Look at him."  
  
Youngbae does not object further, thought it's clear he wants to. In an agile move he throws his weight back, hopping lightly off the boy and landing a few steps away-- all the while watching him with wary eyes, still half-expecting an attack. Likewise, Seunghyun shifts into a fighting stance and lets his claws out just enough to sting should he need them. Beside him he sees Daesung do the same.  
  
They were right to worry. Where Youngbae had hesitated, the boy does not. The second he is free of Youngbae's weight he hurls himself straight at Jiyong, fangs and claws fully extended and ready to do serious damage.  
  
Seunghyun starts forward, going to his alpha's defense, when Jiyong calls out, "Stay back!"  
  
He grinds to a halt.  
  
"Stay back, I've got this," Jiyong says as he sidesteps the boy's bold charge almost effortlessly.  
  
_Of course_ , Seunghyun thinks. Rarely does Jiyong ever _need_ their help.  
  
The boy takes a swing at Jiyong, missing him by a wide margin. "What makes you think I'd want to stick with you? Yeah right," the boy growls, Jiyong dodging his claws again and again. "You're so damn cocky, and I can't stand it."  
  
"It's called confidence. And that surprises you? You know what I am." Jiyong says with a sly grin. "And that's precisely why you're challenging me, isn't it? Take down the alpha, take over the pack, yeah? And you have the gall to call _me_ cocky?" He laughs, the sound so thick with derision that the hairs on Seunghyun's tail curl in sympathetic shame. Jiyong can have that effect when he really wants to; he can make one feel very _small_.  
  
The boy falls for his goading, gobbling up the bait like a starved animal and rushing at Jiyong again and again, never with any success-- Jiyong is too adept at reading his movements and just as agile at evading them. The boy does not stand a chance, to Seunghyun that is clear. And really, this brash young wolf would be hard-pressed to win any duel at all; his technique is sloppy, his offense reckless and utterly without calculation, all aggression and no method.  
  
No finesse to his fight, no art to his attack. The sight makes Seunghyun grumpy, and he scowls at the spectacle unfolding before him.  
  
Not only that, the boy is not physically fit, seems overly lean for his rather average build. Deep winter spells hard times for many wolves, and on _this_ wolf it shows. Just because Seunghyun's pack is thriving does not mean other packs are faring the same.  
  
The scuffle continues, the boy rushing at Jiyong repeatedly, his blows never landing, and Seunghyun decides that it is actually painful to watch. This boy is no worthy adversary to Jiyong;  their leader is only toying with him. He shifts his weight to one leg, quickly growing bored.  
  
"Quit running away!" the boy shouts, frustrated with Jiyong's constant sidestepping. "Just fight me already!"  
  
"But we are fighting. It's not my fault you can't land a single blow," Jiyong says cheekily.  
  
"Fight me," the boy repeats heatedly. He seems winded already, his breath misting before him in the cold night air. "What kind of alpha are you if you won't face me and fight? Come on already."  
  
Jiyong's eyes flash. "Careful what you ask for, kid."  
  
"You're the strangest alpha I've ever met," the boy sneers, lip curling in disdain. "Why these guys--" he gestures to the rest of them, "--follow you I don't know. There's something wrong with you. _All_ of you."  
  
It doesn't take much more than that. In a flurry of motion Jiyong has the younger wolf back on the ground where he began, knees pinning both his arms to the dirt, a hand fisted tightly in his pale hair, deadly claws threatening his bared throat.  
  
Jiyong _prides_ himself on being different, on setting himself and the rest of his modestly-sized pack apart from all the rest. It is a quality that Seunghyun and Youngbae have valued in him for as long as they have known him. Little thrills their leader more than defying expectation... but even Jiyong has to draw the line somewhere. And this boy, this hot-headed young wolf, has sailed over it.  
  
Misguided insults against his packmates will not be tolerated.  
  
"Concede?" Jiyong wrests the boy's head back hard and holds him there, touching the finely-honed edge of his talons to his fluttering pulse.  
  
The boy's clawed hands scrabble at the ground in naked fear for the few seconds it takes him to regain his composure. Then, the panic peels back and he scowls up at Jiyong's smug face in resignation, all his earlier anger still present but stowed away, simmering below the surface.  
  
"Yes," he says tightly.  
  
"Yes what?"  
  
"I concede."  
  
And just like that, Jiyong relaxes, seeming to take pity on the boy. A light tug of warnig on his mussed hair, and he releases him. The boy stands gingerly and makes a show of brushing the dirt and grass from his clothes and hair.  
  
"You're brave to challenge a pack's alpha head-on," Jiyong says seriously. "As brave as you are stupid. You really never stood a chance, and I'm not just saying that. I hope you realize that now."  
  
The boy nods and continues busying himself with his clothes. Straightening his jacket, patting down his pants pockets, pulling on the ends of his sleeves-- anything to avoid meeting Jiyong's eyes, the shame of his defeat strong.  
  
"Welcome to the pack, omega," Jiyong says, seeming very satisfied with himself.  
  
The boy gapes at Jiyong in abject horror, mouth falling open. Seunghyun thinks he looks like a fish freshly plucked from the water.  
  
At his side Daesung sucks in a sharp breath. Seunghyun gives him a questioning look, but Daesung doesn't seem to see it, lost somewhere in his own musings.  
  
"What's with that face? You should have known this would happen." Jiyong crosses his arms as he explains matter-of-factly, "Newest member. Youngest, I'm guessing, though I could be wrong about that. And as for the rest, well..." He shrugs. "You're young and arrogant. You could stand to learn some respect."  
  
"But--"  
  
"Consider it an opportunity for personal growth."  
  
"But--" The boy looks _devastated_.  
  
"You'll like it here," Youngbae says, smiling kindly at the boy as he comes forward. "You could have a good home here, with us. Come on, don't look so down about it," he teases.  
  
"He's right. We've got it pretty good here," Jiyong agrees, eyeing Youngbae with a deep fondness.  
  
"Yeah," the boy says, eyes downcast.  
  
Jiyong's hand reaches out and pets his hair, fingers carding curiously through blond locks. "Also, this hair! And here we thought Youngbae's was light."  
  
"Look like you're not omega anymore," Seunghyun murmurs, a little wistful, turning to Daesung with a soft smile. "Congratulations. You've just been promoted."  
  
"Yeah," Daesung says, seeming troubled.  
  
"You okay?" He drapes an arm across Daesung's broad shoulders, noticeably stiff under his touch.  
  
Daesung nods curtly. Seunghyun shrugs, perplexed, but decides to lets it go.  
  
And so they head back inside, this time with one extra in tow, their newest member trailing closely behind. Jiyong slings an arm around the boy's shoulders, overlooking how he flinches under the suddenly friendly contact. Hard to forget how those hands had been at his throat only minutes earlier.  
  
"So, are you going to tell us your name now? Or are you going to make us wait longer for it?"  
  
The boy lifts his eyes and stares at not only Jiyong but at all of them, his gaze sweeping over every member of the pack until he is sure he has their undivided attention.  
  
It's bold. It's daring. Seunghyun is as impressed by his confidence as he is angered by his insolence. They haven't known him for an hour and already he is stepping severely out of line.  
  
This one is going to be trouble.  
  
Last of all the boy's eyes come to rest on Daesung, and there he lingers. Lingers until, after a short contest, Daesung turns his head, eyes finding the floor. The boy stands there and stares, watching him the longest of them all.  
  
"Seungri," he says at last, seeming to puff up with pride as he finally reveals the mystery of his name. "I'm Seungri."

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
And so begins life as five, their little family unit growing by one more.  
  
To say that Daesung is less than thrilled with his new promotion is a gross understatement. In fact, he wants nothing whatsoever to do with it. What was Jiyong thinking? What does their leader see in the boy to welcome him into their home with open arms, this hot-headed young wolf who calls himself Seungri.  
  
How quickly he has found his way into Jiyong's good graces, Daesung thinks with a resentment that both surprises and sickens him. He does not want to feel this way about his new packmate. He wants to receive Seungri warmly, to embrace him as the new brother figure he is, but... They have a hierarchy to maintain. And Daesung has sensed from the first time he and the other wolf had locked eyes that the introduction of Seungri to their close-knit family promises to turn everything he knows on its head.  
  
For the first few weeks things are tense. Seungri lives among them, but Daesung cannot shake the feeling that he is still somehow... apart. He feels the distance keenly, and does not need to be part of the whispered conversations between Jiyong and Youngbae-- the conversations they think he doesn't hear-- to know they are concerned.  
  
It is not the smooth transition they had hoped for.  
  
They are wolves, they don't need smooth. They can cope with a few bumps in the road. But Seungri is... Seungri is something else, something Daesung does not know how to handle.  
  
The boy seems everywhere at once, and Daesung crosses paths with him often. But he struggles for words, never knowing what to say or how to speak to him, and they pass each other in silence, nothing but dead air between them.  
  
That is, until one day he finds Seungri gazing idly out their home's one window, lost in thought, and an idea strikes him. Compelled to diplomacy, Daesung plasters on his most amiable smile and reaches for the one question guaranteed to grab a wolf's interest.  
  
"Have you eaten?" he asks, hoping desperately that he does not sound too eager. Even though there is time yet before he needs to feed, Daesung could eat right now. Daesung can _always_ eat. No proper wolf will ever turn down the promise of a meal-- or even the possibility of one. What better way for them to bond than through hunting and feeding as a pair?  
  
It's _foolproof_.  
  
"Yes," Seungri replies in a bored tone, not even looking up at him.  
  
Daesung blinks. "Oh. Recently?"  
  
"Jiyong and I went out earlier."  
  
"Oh." He had been so sure... Daesung slinks out of the room, tail drooping, feeling inexplicably rejected.  
  
His idea _had_ been foolproof, he tells himself. But not Seungri-proof.  
  
And so it continues like this for several weeks more. Perplexed-- and if he's honest, a little hurt-- Daesung looks on as Seungri gradually opens up to the others. Something in Seunghyun, Jiyong, and Youngbae demands respect, and Seungri seems to respond to that. He talks to them, at least.  
  
But that same courtesy does not extend to Daesung. Seungri talks to him only when they are together as five, and only as much as he needs to. Never when they are alone.  
  
Daesung simply doesn't understand it. It wouldn't bother him so much if he did not feel so deliberately ignored.  
  
Soon he finds himself retreating every opportunity he gets, resorting to actively avoiding the other wolf to spare himself the inconvenience, and worse, the nagging sense of rejection. And the more he withdraws, all but giving up on getting to know his new packmate, the more aware he becomes of a new feeling, one that is entirely unexpected.  
  
Eyes, trailing him wherever he goes.  
  
It feels dreadful, like claws slowly, painstakingly carving into the back of his head, and finally Daesung cannot take it anymore. He does not have to keep running from this. He _won't._  
  
"What are you looking at?" he snaps at Seungri, willing away the waver in his voice, his rising anxiety getting the better of him. "Are you following me? Why?"  
  
Seungri only grins at him cryptically before wandering off.  
  
But to his growing dismay, Daesung cannot always muster the courage to confront him. Too often he ducks his head and flees the scene. He shoves shaking hands deep in his pant pockets and departs at a fast walk, needing to be somewhere else, anywhere else, as long as it's away from Seungri, shame nipping sharply at his heels until long after the other boy is out of sight. With unsteady fingers he combs his shaggy hair forward and down, over his face, hoping it hides his frightened eyes while he makes his... his...  
  
God, his _escape_. Daesung knows intimidation tactics, has danced the dance of predator and prey countless times in his young life. He never thought he'd succumb to them so easily. He feels _hunted_.  
  
At last, when Daesung thinks his frazzled nerves can take no more, a day arrives when instead of stalking him like a shadow Seungri approaches him directly, revealing himself in an easy, almost friendly fashion, like that had been his intent all along. He holds out a hand in a gesture Daesung has seen a few times before but has never actually taken part in: a handshake.  
  
The handshake is a human invention. Wolves have no need of it.  
  
He stares down at the hand like it is a snake coiled in the grass. If he rests his hand in Seungri's, if he lets him close fingers around his, he could drag Daesung in and _gut_ him with the claws on his other. Before Daesung could pull away Seungri could slice across his unguarded belly and open him up, everything inside him that he can't live without dropping wetly to the ground between them.  
  
Daesung shudders. Maybe it is misguided, but he does not trust this new wolf, Seungri.  
  
But Jiyong does, and whatever-- _whoever_ \-- the alpha of his pack deems safe enough to sleep next to, so should he. Besides, if the others thought Seungri was at all a threat, they would never allow the two of them to be alone together. _Seunghyun_ would never allow it.  
  
And so, Daesung knows in his heart that he is wrong to fear this boy, his misgivings surely unfounded. At the very least, Seungri deserves a chance.  
  
They might even become good friends someday, Seungri and him. Isn't that possibility, however slim, worth fighting for?  
  
So Daesung takes Seungri's hand firmly in his own, gives it a solid squeeze and turns on the other boy his most dazzling smile. The kind that always leaves Seunghyun looking blown away, like a strong wind rolled in and stole his breath right out of his body.  
  
His smile one of Daesung's best assets, and he is going to use it to full effect. Seungri won't know what hit him.  
  
"Hey," Seungri says in greeting, lips quirking up just so.  
  
"Hey," Daesung replies evenly.  
  
"So, uh, I was just wondering," Seungri starts, relaxing his grip until his hand falls away. Daesung takes his back as well and breathes a little easier for it. "Been with this pack long?"  
  
"A few years now."  
  
"Oh." Seungri cocks his head to one side, seeming innocent enough. "Omega, right?"  
  
Daesung brilliant smile almost falters-- almost. He manages to catch it just in time, wrenches it back up where it belongs. Close call.  
  
"I was." Daesung blinks at him, pausing for effect. "Until you came along."  
  
Seungri blinks back at him, his face like stone. Unnerving. "Yeah, about that..."  
  
"What about it?" Daesung says, feigning ignorance.  
  
"Do you think anything can be done about it?"  
  
Before he can stop it a surprised laugh skips out of Daesung. Seungri recoils.  
  
"I doubt it. Maybe if you hadn't challenged Jiyong like that... He's kind for an alpha, but he's still an alpha. He won't let something like that go unpunished." _And he shouldn't_ , Daesung thinks. He looks away as he says, surprising himself with his own stark honesty, "You've got guts, I'll give you that much."  
  
"Thanks, I guess." The disappointment on the other boy's face is plain to see.  
  
"And anyway," Daesung continues, "I'm not the one you should be asking. It's Jiyong's call. Not mine."  
  
"I just thought..." Daesung watches, expectant, as Seungri struggles to find the words. "You just seem like..."  
  
"Like what?" He says more sharply than he means to, anticipating an insult, and whoops, there goes his smile.  
  
Seungri puts his hands up. "I just think it suits you, you know? I thought... Crazy as it sounds, I thought you might even want to take it back. Your old rank."  
  
Daesung doesn't know what to say to that. He isn't offended-- among his pack he has always been comfortable in the role of omega, has lived it and _owned_ it for so long that he can scarcely remember ever being anything else. And his packmates-- Jiyong and Youngbae and especially Seunghyun, his mate-- treat him well in spite of it. They treat him like an equal, or something very close to it.  
  
He cannot say the same for other packs. The role of omega is never an easy one, and some packs are worse than others.  
  
Daesung wants to tell Seungri all of this and more, wants to make him understand that _omega_ in this pack doesn't mean what he seems to think it means. It isn't the dirty word spoken in whispers in other packs. He wishes he could just tell him and trust he would understand... but suspects it would fall on deaf ears. It would not be enough for Seungri to simply be told; he must experience it on his own if he is to believe.  
  
And anyway, Daesung thinks, Seungri's place in the pecking order is beyond his influence. Those kinds of decisions are not his to make, but his alpha's.  
  
Suddenly, everything is clear.  
  
"So that's why you've been watching me," Daesung says, realization dawning. The other wolf had only been studying him in preparation for this talk. His laugh is one of relief.  
  
"Oh, so you noticed." Seungri grins at him.  
  
"I'd be a pretty sorry wolf if I didn't," Daesung replies easily. "I have to ask, why does this bother you so much, anyway? I don't get it."  
  
"How would you feel," Seungri says, voice turning hard, "if you were once an alpha over your own pack. Your packmates all looked up to you, looked to you to guard and protect them and make decisions on their behalf. To _take care_ _of_ them. Then suddenly, bam! You're an omega. Just like that?" He shakes his head, voice thick with contempt as he growls, "I was a leader once. Now I'm the lowest of the low."  
  
_The lowest of the low._ It connects with Daesung like a slap in the face and the fur on his tail bristles, nearly provoked to violence-- but no, violence is the last thing either of them needs right now.  
  
"But you weren't the alpha in your previous pack," he points out, ignoring the insult and focusing instead on reining in his temper.  
  
"No. But before that..." Seungri's teeth find his lip as he bites out, "My sister, along with a few close friends. We had it good. Small pack, everyone got along... A lot like yours, actually."  
  
_It's yours too, now,_ Daesung wants to say, but holds his tongue.  
  
"But then...?"  
  
"You ever seen a landslide?" Seungri says with eyes gone a little vacant. "Ever seen how it just-- buries everything, wipes it all out? It takes only seconds. We got separated." He shrugs and mumbles, so softly Daesung almost doesn't hear him, "I don't even know if they're still alive."  
  
"I'm sorry," Daesung offers, a stab of sympathy piercing the fog of anger. He can't help his kind heart.  
  
"Why? Not your fault. Unless you can control the weather or-- or the earth itself."  
  
"It's just an expression," Daesung says softly. "It means that what happened to you was terrible and I wish I could do something to make it better."  
  
"Well, you can't," the other boy says harshly, his frown deepening into a dark scowl. "You're as powerless to change anything as I am." He snarls, disgusted, " _Omega_. I didn't want this. You can have it back."  
  
"It doesn't work like that," Daesung reminds him.  
  
"It isn't right for me!"

Daesung hears what Seungri isn't saying. _It isn't right for me, it's right for **you**._  
  
_Then maybe you should just leave_ , Daesung resists growling at him, though he badly wants to. What he does say is "We're not holding you captive, Seungri. You're not our prisoner."  
  
"Sure feels like it."  
  
What the hell? "Jiyong did a very generous thing by taking you in," Daesung points out sharply. Why he did it Daesung _still_ cannot fathom, but what's done is done, and it isn't his place to question it. "I don't think you understand. We haven't had anyone new since me. That was years ago!"  
  
Because they don't need anyone else. They do just fine on their own. Better than that, even-- they're doing _great_ , living life to the fullest and loving it, just the four of them.  
  
Are they really ready for that to change? For four to become five? Daesung is not convinced.  
  
"Generous," Seungri scoffs. "If you say so."  
  
Daesung sees red. _We are giving you a chance, you little shit_ , he thinks. _I think you owe us the same courtesy._  
  
Seungri studies him a moment with a severe gaze, as if reading his thoughts. A part of Daesung wishes he could. He cannot bring himself to say the words, but he wants Seungri to hear them all the same.  
  
"Alright." Seungri's shoulders droop in something like defeat. "I should go. I'm obviously upsetting you, and I get the feeling that doesn't happen very often."  
  
"I'm not upset," Daesung says through clenched teeth.  
  
Seungri barks out a laugh, a terribly derisive sound that only fans the flames of Daesung's anger. "You're definitely upset. You look like you're ready to tear into me. I think I could take you-- you may look strong, but omegas are, well." He grins cruelly. "They're usually at the bottom for a reason."  
  
Daesung chokes.  
  
"Still, I'd rather not fight you."  
  
Reeling like the other boy struck him, Daesung stumbles back a step. But before he can say anything-- before he can do anything-- Seungri turns and wanders away.  
  
Daesung watches him go, caught in the flames of a rage greater than any he has ever known. What is it about Seungri that infuriates him so? What _arrogance_ , he thinks, seething. What _nerve_. What...  
  
Jiyong was right. That boy could use a hard lesson in respect.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

 

 

Like the wolf he is, Daesung's wild heart craves the outdoors. He _needs_ the sun's kiss on his skin, the hard earth under his feet, and when he shucks off his shoes, the sand and grass between his toes. Without all this he is sure he would wither away. His packmates often join him, but when he cannot coax them out Daesung doesn't mind exploring alone, with only himself for company.  
  
That soon changes.  
  
Because in the aftermath of their little exchange Seungri does not stop hounding Daesung as he had hoped. If anything, their almost-fight has emboldened the other boy, and suddenly Seungri is spending more time with Daesung than ever, like a splinter he just can't seem to get rid of embedded under his skin.  
  
And that is how Daesung's solo excursions have turned into joint expeditions where Seungri tags along, trotting at his side impatiently like he wants to see the whole world laid before him _now_. Many days find him jogging far ahead, pausing intermittently as he waits for Daesung to catch up-- as if venturing out in the first place had been his idea all along, and now he leads the way, blazing a trail for them both.  
  
Daesung scowls down at the ground, glares at the grass grown up around his knees while he wades through it, Seungri calling out to him to _hurry up, let's go already_. In the end he cages up his annoyance and follows, but not before taking extra care to trail far behind the other wolf, just to spite him. He didn't have a plan for today anyway, had only wanted to get out and stretch his legs a bit, feel the wind on his face, get his blood pumping as he moves.  
  
"You're so slow!" Seungri yells at him from a distance, waiting expectantly.  
  
Immediately Daesung slows his pace, until he is practically dragging his feet through the tall grass. He travels at his own pace, thank you very much. Not Seungri's.  
  
_He_ should be the one giving Seungri the tour. As it is, Daesung feels like he is being shown the way through his own pack's territory by a wolf who has not been here for much more than a month. Seungri doesn't know the landscape here, but by the way he goes boldly, carrying himself with head held high and tail swinging lazily behind him, one might get the impression that he has lived here for years.  
  
If Daesung is honest, it's all very disquieting.  
  
"It's not a race," he grouses when he reaches Seungri's side some time later.  
  
Seungri pouts at him.  
  
"Sorry. What's the hurry?" Daesung says, deflating. He is being a dick, isn't he? Maybe Seungri just wants to make nice after all. Maybe he doesn't _mean_ to get under Daesung's skin the way he does.  
  
Seungri flings his arms open wide, his grin almost rivaling the late morning sun that shines down on them.  
  
"I want to see what all is out here! Now that I'm free to look, anyway. When the others are around it's like I have to be--" He flounders for a moment, searching for the right words. "Extra careful, I guess."  
  
"The others," Daesung echoes, wondering why Seungri is so set on the idea that he is somehow different. _I'm your senior too, same as them_ , he wants to remind him.  
  
"Yeah. Jiyong is always watching me, I can feel it." Seungri eyes him slyly, adding, "Just like Seunghyun is always watching you."  
  
Daesung doesn't waste a moment. "You know what we are. You can tell, can't you?"  
  
Seungri snorts. "Of course. Any wolf with a nose would know the second they catch a whiff of you," he says, lips curling into a smile that Daesung suspects isn't meant to be cruel, but somehow still is.  
  
"Good," Daesung states, straightening up. He lifts his chin proudly as he says, "That's how it should be."  
  
Because that is how it should be, and Daesung would not have it any other way. As his mate, Seunghyun does everything in his power to mark what is his, to cover Daesung in his scent, to bury it so far in his skin it can't possibly be overlooked. Everything short of, say, pissing on him or-- or worse.  
  
Daesung's nose scrunches up, a little queasy at the thought. In some ways they are like animals, yes, but they are not _actually_ animals.  
  
Seungri opens his mouth to reply when a familiar tune floats over them, grabbing their attention. From across the field they've just entered there arises a chaotic _yipping_ and _yelping_ , a terrible riot of sound.  
  
_Ah, of course_ , Daesung thinks. The local coyotes are at it again. Judging by their frenzied barks and high-pitched whines, they must be closing in on a kill.  
  
He sighs. It doesn't take much to get them riled up. Their wild neighbors are, if nothing else, excitable. Daesung has heard their cries enough to know, most often in the early morning and late evening hours. Sometimes though, their song starts up in the deepest, darkest hours of the night, leaving Daesung with little choice but to lie awake and suffer through the ruckus.  
  
They pose no threat to Daesung or his packmates, the animals' courage as small as their size, but some nights Daesung still wakes to an old fear creeping up on him, a niggling worry that as the chorus of howls grows in volume, their eerie cries drawing him up and out of dreams... the pack might be moving in on them, surrounding them, circling like vultures.  
  
When he shares his concerns with Seunghyun, his mate bumps shoulders with him playfully.  
  
"Daesung! Don't tell me you're afraid of a few coyotes," he taunts.  
  
"A few I can handle," Daesung says, pulling their blanket up to his chin, "But an entire pack?"  
  
"They won't hurt you. They can't." Seunghyun pauses, thinking over what he has just said. "Not badly, anyway."  
  
Daesung makes a distressed sound.  
  
Seunghyun sighs, a long-suffering sound. "Daesung, stop. They're not coming for you, or whatever it is you're imagining."  
  
"How can you be so sure?"  
  
"Coyotes are weak. They're practically vermin. Why we don't just wipe them out already and be done with it I don't know. Anyway, they won't come within sight of this place as long as we're here," Seunghyun says confidently.  
  
And when still Daesung's doubtful expression does not ease, his fear too deep-rooted, too pervasive, Seunghyun cups his jaw and lifts his face until they are eye to eye. "Hey. Don't worry. Nothing is going to happen to you-- or to any of us, for that matter. I promise."  
  
To this day Seunghyun's words have proven correct. The coyotes coexist with them but keep their distance, always giving their home a wide berth. But sometimes, when they are on the move as they seem to be today, Daesung comes within sight of them. Within sight, and never a step closer.  
  
"Sounds like the coyotes got something," Daesung says thoughtfully, coming back to the present.  
  
Seungri perks up. "You have coyotes around here?"  
  
"Yeah? You didn't?" Daesung shrugs. "Don't know where you're from, but I thought they were everywhere."  
  
"We did... until we ran them all off," Seungri says offhandedly. "Bunch of nuisances. And so fucking _noisy_."  
  
Sometimes Daesung wonders if they should do the same. They've never really discussed it. "We don't mind them much. They fear us enough not to bother us, and we don't compete for food, so..."  
  
It's mostly true. They only tolerate the coyotes' presence because when they're not chasing down small game like rabbits and rodents, too small for Daesung and his pack to bother with most days, they can be spotted foraging for berries and low-hanging fruits like prickly pear, juniper berries, and wild plum. Foods he and his packmates have no hope of eating. If it isn't meat, their bodies simply can't digest it.  
  
The coyotes, however...  
  
Some days Daesung envies their ability to eat such things. It doesn't seem fair.  
  
"They kill fawns though, don't they?" Seungri says, jerking Daesung from his thoughts.  
  
"Sometimes. Their impact on the herds is minor though. The deer population here is strong, it's part of what makes living here so great. More for us!" Daesung says, grinning toothily. He then tosses his head back and groans, "But _god_ , I wish I could eat fruits like the coyotes do. I'm so curious about them."  
  
He has tried nibbling on the occasional wild plum or handful of berries, but it always leaves him feeling vaguely queasy-- and if he pushes himself and attempts more than that, terrible cramps in his gut for hours after.  
  
"Fruits and berries," Seungri says a little distantly, "Believe me, they're nothing special."  
  
"Okay." Daesung blinks at him but opts not to ask. Instead he continues, "Seriously though, I do envy them sometimes, if only for that." He shoots Seungri a sharp look. "Don't tell the others I said that. They'll never let me live it down."  
  
Seungri snorts. "Envy? The coyotes? They also eat shit, you know. Nothing to envy there."  
  
That does it-- Daesung laughs, long and loud. Seungri smiles too, seeming pleased.  
  
In the distance he coyotes' agitated cries suddenly pick up pace and volume again, and Seungri lights up before Daesung's eyes. Daesung has a bad feeling about the look of pure mischief that plays across the other boy's face.  
  
"Wanna go and see what they're after? I bet it would be easy pickings."  
  
"What?" Daesung stares at Seungri like he has just sprouted a second head. "Are you even hungry?"  
  
"Not really. Just bored." He bounces in place. "And a little restless. Got energy to burn."  
  
"Just bored," Daesung says, digesting that. "So you're gonna go and steal their meal. That's kind of you."  
  
"Yeah, so? No one said I had to be kind to coyotes. Come on, come with me!" Seungri pivots and sprints away, gone in a flash. When Daesung does not follow he slows and turns, jogging backward as he says, "Well? Are you coming or not?"  
  
Seungri hopes for an easy meal and maybe a bit of fun. Daesung just hopes that Seungri will be easily appeased so they can continue on with their hike and leave the damn coyotes the hell alone. He may not fear them like he used to, but he still harbors little love for the creatures.  
  
The cause of the commotion turns out to be rabbits, their tiny bodies darting nimbly through the tall grass up until the moment their little lives were ended in the jaws of a hungry coyote. To Daesung's utter astonishment, Seungri darts in and makes a grab at one, trying to steal it just as he had said he would, baring his teeth and snarling as he starts in on a game of tug-of-war with what is recognizably the pack's largest and strongest member.  
  
Daesung can do nothing but look on, aghast. _This_ he has never seen.  
  
In the end Seungri wins the rabbit... but he pays for it. Jaws now empty, the coyote lunges at him in a surprising show of speed and aggression, leaving him with a nasty-looking bite to the hand. It is not just a warning nip or a shallow graze of the teeth. No, the animal's long canines sink deep, puncturing his palm on bottom and just missing the fine bones of his hand on top. With a cry of shock and pain, Seungri drops the dead rabbit, delivers a swift kick to the coyote's side, and retreats, clutching at his injured hand.  
  
"Seungri!" Daesung runs to him. Meanwhile, the coyotes bundle together and flee across the field, their prizes-- the rabbit carcasses-- held securely in their jaws. Daesung barely registers them disappearing into the treeline.  
  
Seungri cradles his wounded hand in his other, keeping it close. Guarding it.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
"Fuck, _fuck_ ," Seungri swears viciously, opening his hand to inspect the damage. Blood oozes from the wound, bright red in the sunlight, seeping down the side of his palm and over his wrist. Daesung leans in to get a better look at it and breathes a sigh of relief-- clean puncture marks, no tearing, minimal bleeding. Should knit back together in no time, especially for one of their kind.  
  
Seungri makes a fist and hisses at the pain that results. "That damn dog. And my right hand, too," he says, looking stricken.  
  
Now the he knows it is not serious, Daesung fights as best as he can to conceal a smug grin, a kind of cruel satisfaction that is so unlike him coming alive inside and clawing its way out.  
  
"Yeah, well, you were kind of..." _Kind of asking for that to happen_ , he just manages not to say.  
  
"What? Kind of _what_?" Seungri whines, still prodding at the wounds.  
  
"Nothing. Just, it sucks, you know?" Daesung comments. "Looks like it hurts. Stop poking at it already."

Seungri jerks back. "Don't _touch_ me," he hisses.  
  
Daesung recoils, feet taking him back a few steps. He hates that Seungri got hurt, but... Serves him right for stirring up trouble, he thinks. If he was a more vindictive person he might even say Seungri deserved that.  
  
But he does not say it, because he isn't. Seungri will be alright. Give it a little time and he'll be fine.  
  
"It does," Seungri says, dissolving again into a string of curses to take the edge off. "Ugh, let's just go home." He stomps off, nursing his hand as he goes.  
  
"I thought you wanted to explore," Daesung calls out as he hurries after him.  
  
Seungri does not bother to answer, and if all the way home Daesung walks proudly in front, undisputedly in the lead for a change, to hide his secret, pleased grin from the other boy? Well, no one has to know but himself.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
Days later Seunghyun returns from what they consider a routine patrol. It is just a cursory check for signs of trouble, anything indicating that something could be amiss-- footsteps stamped into the dirt, signs or symbols carved crudely with claws into the bark of trees, a scent that does not belong hanging in the air, one they do not know. This land, their _domain_ , is all they have; they cannot afford to be blind to threats, to anything that could destroy their livelihood if left unchecked.  
  
Threats like other wolves. Or worse, humans.  
  
Daesung smells Seunghyun's approach shortly before he arrives and makes it to the door just in time to pull it open for him. At the sight of his eager face Seunghyun pushes his own affectionately into his neck, finding that place under his jaw where his scent is strong and he always seems to fit just right.  
  
"How was it?" Jiyong catches him by the arm as soon as they part. "Any problems?"  
  
Seunghyun shrugs. "Not really. Borders are mostly secure."  
  
"Mostly? That sure inspires confidence," Jiyong drawls. "Come on, Seunghyun. Spill."  
  
"Alright, alright. I sighted one wolf a little ways to the north."  
  
"Just one?" Jiyong raises an eyebrow, seeming less concerned than Daesung expects, given the news. They don't get many trespassers around here. It is what made the appearance of Seungri and his pack that moonlit night so abnormal, so unforeseen. They were nearly taken by surprise. It could have been the end of them.  
  
"Just one," Seunghyun confirms lazily.  
  
"You don't seem concerned."  
  
"May have been a scout. May have been someone just passing through. Didn't look like much of a threat to me," Seunghyun says. Then he grins, too wide and full of sharp teeth, and cracks his knuckles. "Don't worry, I roughed the guy up pretty well before I chased him off. Gave him a good scare and more than a few cuts and bruises. Don't think we'll be seeing him again."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Bastard just about pissed himself trying to get away," Seunghyun says, puffing up, and Daesung smiles fondly.  His mate gets so _proud_ of himself sometimes.  
  
Jiyong hums in thought. "Where did you say this was? We might need to keep a closer eye on that area."  
  
"It was..." Seunghyun scrubs at his eyes in thought, trying to recall. "Somewhere over by Dick Rock, I think."  
  
Daesung's ears perk up. "Wait, what? What did you just say?"  
  
"Dick Rock?" Seunghyun repeats. Then he jerks as if stung and turns to Daesung with wide eyes. "Oh my god. Don't tell me I haven't shown you Dick Rock."  
  
"Dick Rock."  
  
"Yes! You've gotta see it." His hands come down hard on Daesung's shoulder in rough excitement while, behind him, Jiyong muffles quiet laughter into his hand. "That's it, I'm taking you there tomorrow."  
  
"Can't wait," Daesung replies with a grin that is lopsided and a gleam in his eyes that he hopes says, _You're absolutely batshit crazy sometimes, Seunghyun, but you know I love you anyway._  
  
And so bright and early the following morning the two of them take off across their territory to go and behold the wondrous, so-called Dick Rock.  
  
"Okay, so," Seunghyun says to Daesung, preparing him for the marvel he is about to see. "What I'm about to show you? It's a rock that looks exactly like--"  
  
"A dick?" Daesung interjects smoothly.  
  
"--yes. A dick." Seunghyun deflates a little, and Daesung feels only the tiniest bit bad for poking holes in his fun. "It's amazing, I promise. Just wait. You'll see."  
  
"Okay." He says it with a smile because Seunghyun's energy and excitement is catching, even if he isn't expecting much. Something vaguely phallic shaped, sure. At best, a rough approximation of a cock. It would not take much for Seunghyun-- or any of them, really-- to see a vague resemblance and latch onto it.  
  
Then they arrive, and Daesung realizes he had been so wrong to doubt.  
  
He stands in the shadow of the rock formation, dumbstruck. It is exactly as Seunghyun described. Towering before him is an enormous, weather-beaten, nature-formed rock that looks _uncannily_ like a cock. It even boasts an impressive set of balls at the base, one stone that looks like two, rounded and worn almost smooth from years of wind and rain. They seem to flow into the rock pillar standing tall and proud against the cloudless, blue sky.  
  
"Oh my god," Daesung says, staring with mouth ajar at what would be, were this thing its namesake, the head. He would never have believed it without seeing for himself, without taking it in with his own two eyes. All around it lie other boulders, some larger, some smaller, all uniquely shaped by an age of nature's rough handling... But truly, Daesung decides, _this_ rock-- or this set of rocks-- stands alone.  
  
"See? What'd I tell you? Dick Rock," Seunghyun says, hardly able to contain his glee as he awaits Daesung's reaction.  
  
"How long has this been here?" Daesung exclaims, touching a hand to the gritty surface. His fingers come away the color of red clay-- or flesh, rosy red and hard to the touch with blood. God, even the _color_ is right. He narrows his eyes at Seunghyun. "You didn't make this, did you? The three of you? Before I came?"  
  
"No way," Seunghyun snorts.  "You're crazy if you think we could do this. Three werewolves? We're strong, but not that strong. And with what tools?"  
  
Daesung returns to the rock, contemplating the sheer size of it and wondering how such a thing could be done. Seunghyun has a point.  
  
"As for how long it's been here? Fuck if I know. Longer than we have, I bet. We've known about it for years though. Since before you joined us."  
  
"Wow," Daesung says again. "And you're just now showing me? Thanks."  
  
"Sorry," Seunghyun says, truly apologetic. "I just don't come this far in this direction very often, not anymore. Too close to our human neighbors for comfort.'  
  
"Someday we might not be able to come this far south anymore," Daesung says a little sadly. "I'm glad you shared it with me while we still..."  
  
With eyes that are fond and a smile just this side of regretful, Seunghyun pats the rock affectionately and says, "Yeah... Wish I'd done it sooner though."  
  
Daesung stares at Seunghyun's hand as it feels over the rock's coarse surface, almost petting it. It's doing questionable things to his body the longer he watches, intrigue turning to interest.  
  
"Nature, huh," Daesung says appreciatively.  
  
"Love it or hate it, it's pretty impressive."  
  
"Can't argue with that." A long, comfortable silence passes between them. "So which one of you had the honor of finding it first?" Daesung asks.  
  
"Jiyong got to it first, but we all have our own names for it," Seunghyun replies through an impish grin. "Jiyong calls it Cock Rock. He likes how it rhymes."  
  
Daesung chuckles. "He would."  
  
"Youngbae calls it Rock and Balls." Seunghyun pulls away from the rock at last to turn to him, a curious look about him. "What will you call it?"  
  
"Me? Shit, I don't know." Daesung thinks for a moment, worried that the best names are already taken.  
  
Seunghyun grins and eggs him on. "Come on, give me something. Anything."  
  
Daesung doesn't know... "Maybe... E _rock_ tion?" He cringes the moment the terrible pun leaves his mouth, and to his embarrassment, Seunghyun does the same. He tugs on his own hair in shame. "Sorry, _sorry_ , that was so bad. You guys already took the good ones!"  
  
"You say that, but," Seunghyun encourages, draping an arm over his shoulders. "I know you can do better than that."  
  
Daesung rubs at his face, scrubbing away the flush on his cheeks and righting himself. "Let me give it some thought. I'll get back to you with something better, I promise."  
  
Seunghyun slings an arm over his shoulder and leans on him as he says, with a confidence Daesung wishes he shared, "I know you will. I have faith in you." Then, "What do you think Seungri would call it?"  
  
Not missing a beat, Daesung replies, "That's easy. Seungri."  
  
"Seungri would call it Seungri?"  
  
"Yes," Daesung says conclusively, and Seunghyun laughs.  
  
"I'm glad you find it funny," Daesung grumbles. Then, with a heavy sigh, "What are we going to do with him?" He does not mean to steer the topic in such a gloomy direction, but Seunghyun has given him an opening. He _needs_ to spill his thoughts to someone. And as his closest packmate and his mate, his best friend and confidant, Seunghyun is an ideal candidate.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Seriously? Like you don't already know," Daesung says, frowning hard. "I feel like he hates me most days. Like he thinks I stole his rightful place in the pack or something. When, in fact, _he_ stole _mine_."  
  
Seunghyun just smiles softly and pulls him close. "Give it time. He'll come around eventually."  
  
"Can't we just switch? I don't mind being omega again if it means we all get along."  
  
"Jiyong made him the omega. You can't just undo that. Not without his say-so, anyway, and I doubt he'd grant it just because Seungri is, what, taking it badly?" Daesung makes a sound of protest and Seunghyun chides, "Don't forget, it's also punishment, in a way, for taking him on. Seungri challenged the alpha and lost. It wasn't... the best way to begin."  
  
"Punishment," Daesung echoes, a fresh thought forming. "What's so bad about being omega, anyway? Maybe it's a problem in other packs, but you guys are..." He struggles to find the right word. "Different? You're not like most packs. You're _kind._ All of you." Daesung's face burns again as he says, grateful beyond measure, "You've never picked on me-- well, not in a bad way." At least, their teasing has never been anything that he could not handle.  
  
Sure, Seunghyun tests Daesung's limits sometimes-- and just when Daesung is least prepared, thrills in persuading him _beyond_. But that is something else, something uniquely theirs that they do not share with the others.  
  
Jiyong had not been lying back then, years ago when Seunghyun had first welcomed Daesung to the pack. _One of a kind_ , their leader had said about their small but growing family. Daesung cannot argue with that, and he would not dare try. What the four of them have had these past several years is as unique as unique comes.  
  
At times Daesung likes to envision each of his packmates as a rare creature, seldom seen in the wild-- Youngbae a red raccoon, Jiyong a white deer, Seunghyun a silver fox. All of which Daesung has had the honor of seeing only once in his life, each sighting leaving him dazzled. Together they form a family so extraordinary, their bonds of friendship so unrivaled he cannot see it ever happening again.  
  
Daesung smiles to himself, soft and secretive. For the others, friendship. For Seunghyun, love.  
  
Yet now four have become five, the addition of Seungri rattling their stable existence like an earthquake. The tremors are felt far and wide, shaking Daesung to the core. It is like learning how to function all over again, their pack a body bearing the strange weight of a new and unexpected limb.  
  
Seunghyun returns his soft smile. "We're not so bad. Hopefully Seungri will come to see that on his own. I think that's the only way he'll take it to heart."  
  
"Hopefully," Daesung agrees, wishing again that he had even half Seunghyun's confidence in their newest packmate.  
  
"But you know, if he tries anything..." Seunghyun takes Daesung's fingers in hand and squeezes-- just his fingers as he sometimes is wont to do. "I know you can take of yourself, but... Let me know. Okay?"  
  
Maybe less confidence than he thought. "Okay."  
  
"Good." Seunghyun's eyes return to the giant, phallic rock rising to the heavens before them, eternally erect. "So, thought of another name for this big guy yet?"  
  
"Uh," Daesung says, unprepared. No, he has _not_. "No, but now you've got me thinking..." His lips pucker up in thought. "This is gonna sound strange, but bear with me. We came from the earth and at the end of our lives we return to it-- from dust to dust you know?"  
  
"Yes?" Seunghyun says, "Go on."  
  
"We're just as much a part of the earth as-- as those trees over there, and this rock here. So what if we bear some likeness to it? Or what if it's more like us than we thought?" With eyes wide, as wide as he can make them, Daesung says, "It's like I'm staring at the earth's dick."  
  
Seunghyun barks out a surprised laugh-- it's deep and lasting and Daesung feels light just hearing it. "This thing? I think it would be bigger. I mean, the earth is pretty damn big."  
  
"We don't know how big the earth is," Daesung counters.  
  
"Does anyone?"  
  
"What if we just kept walking, just took off in one direction and never stopped? Think we'd reach the end? The-- the what, the edge of the earth?"  
  
Seunghyun dismisses him with a shake of his head. "I think you would hit water first. And then your journey would end."  
  
Not following, Daesung says, simply, "Huh?" Seunghyun plops down on the ground, his back against the balls of their treasured rock, and indicates that Daesung should do the same with a hand tugging at his wrist.  
  
"Ever been to the ocean?" he asks, comfortably cross-legged. Daesung shakes his head. "It's like a lake but so much bigger. A body of water so vast that it stretches on into the distance as far as you can see. Nothing but blue all the way to the horizon." Seunghyun falls silent for a few long moments as he reflects on memories of the place, seeming a bit lost in them, and Daesung waits patiently for him to continue.  
  
When Seunghyun finally does he says, "Maybe it's endless. Who knows. Looked like the edge of the world to me." He snorts. "Maybe more like the _end_ of the world."  
  
Daesung stares down at the ground, at the clay-colored dust dirtying his shoes.  
  
"That sounds..."  
  
"Incredible? Impressive?" Seunghyun smirks. "Hard to imagine? I can tell you more if you want."  
  
"Terrifying. That sounds terrifying." Caught in a web of his own imaginings, Daesung finds that he can't move. "I don't want to hear more. I wish I could _stop_ picturing it."  
  
Seunghyun gawks at him. Then he explodes in a flurry of motion, shoving Daesung away and pulling him close all at once. Daesung squawks at all the jostling while Seunghyun laughs, "You and your thing with water. One of these days we're going to teach you to swim. Then maybe you won't look so spooked every time you set foot in anything deeper than a puddle."  
  
"It 'spooks' me because it can kill me," Daesung bites, jerking back, out of Seunghyun's restraining arms and away from his roving hands.  
  
"So you learn to swim. Face it head-on. The wolf way."  
  
_The wolf way._ Daesung has heard that from Seunghyun before, more times than he can count. It's his favorite thing to say and he never lets Daesung forget it.  
  
"Maybe one day. But only when I'm ready," Daesung says. Not a day sooner. He shoots Seunghyun a dirty look. "And don't you dare push me in just to see how I'll react. I know how you are. _Sink or swim_ is more your style, not mine."  
  
_I would drown_ , he thinks, suffering a sudden spike of panic at the thought. _Even if you came in after me I'd probably die of fright anyway, right then and there. Not even you would be able to bring me back._  
  
Because if Daesung knows one thing, it is that death is a permanent state. Death is forever. There is no such thing as coming back to life. Their harsh reality has no room for such fairy tales.  
  
Seunghyun gives him a wounded look. "I wouldn't push you in," he says with a voice that cracks, heavy with hurt. "We'd take it slow."  
  
_When have you and I ever taken anything slow?_ Daesung wants to say. He knows his mate better than that. The answer is _never_. No matter the pursuit, Seunghyun is habitually in a hurry. In his mind, the payoff always justifies the pain.  
  
Daesung drops his head into his hands and scrubs at his face, burdened with sudden emotion that he doesn't mean to unload on the other like this. "I know. I know. I'm sorry."  
  
"It's just..." He huffs, suddenly remembering something, something he thought he had long since let go. "It's like that one time on the cliff."  
  
Seunghyun stares down at his feet, dark eyes seeming somehow bruised as he croaks, "That was... You make it sound like I threw you over the edge or something."  
  
And just like that, Daesung feels _vile_ for bringing up the events of that day years ago, like a putrid piece of meat so far gone even their stomachs of steel would reject it, sending it back up and out where it belongs. Seunghyun apologized for that ages ago. Daesung does not mean to bring up old hurts, does not wish to reopen them to watch them bleed anew. Yet that is exactly what he has just done.  
  
He is disgusted with his behavior today. More than that, he is disgusted with himself.  
  
It's just, Seunghyun sometimes acts before he thinks. He doesn't mean to hurt him, nor frighten him... But the truth is that sometimes he does. Hurt him. Frighten him. And the memory of it never leaves Daesung, not completely.  
  
Is that where this outburst is coming from? He doesn't recognize himself in all this pent-up resentment... Resentment he didn't know he had.  
  
"Sorry," Daesung murmurs in his gentlest voice, almost no voice at all, and inches his hand along the ground until it connects with Seunghyun's. He expects, at the very least, a moment of indecision. Wonders if Seunghyun might even refuse him and pull away, rightfully upset with him for lobbing accusations his way.  
  
But there is no hesitation. Seunghyun does not falter for even a second as he flings himself around Daesung and brings him excruciatingly close in the fiercest, most harrowing of hugs. With face smushed against his collar Daesung makes an exaggerated choking sound.  
  
"Nghh-- Seungh--" He can't _breathe_.  
  
Seunghyun only squeezes him tighter, practically crushing him, before releasing him at last. Daesung fills his lungs again with sweet, sweet air, and finally the tension between them is as the cloak of night against the day's first light. Daesung's cheery laugh lifts the veil and drives away the darkness inside them, between them, and all around them.  
  
Light and laughter. That's all they need.  
  
Because by now Daesung has learned to live with Seunghyun's occasionally bizarre behavior as best he can. He adores his mate, quirks and flaws and all. At least life with his other half is never dull.  
  
Sometimes he wonders, might Seunghyun have taken them both over that cliffside had Daesung not resisted the way he did? Or had the other man truly been only testing him, never with any intent to harm? Daesung may never know, and he has resigned himself to this life of uncertainty.  
  
_No_ , he thinks, _that's not right_. With open arms he has _embraced_ it. He is bound to Seunghyun and committed to believing in the best in him, even if that means here and there placing his life in the other wolf's mostly capable but sometimes clumsy hands.  
  
Because if one thing in this new life of theirs is certain, it is that Seunghyun's heart is always in the right place... even when his head is not.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
Nothing lives without water. Not for long.  
  
Food they can survive without for a time, their bodies running on reserves for days, longer if need be. But water? Water is essential for life. Water is a requirement, and one they must partake of often. They could journey to the river nearby every time one of them thirsts, but to do so would be a terrible hassle.  
  
For this reason, they have at least a few tools at their disposal. Inconvenience spurs innovation. Today they are on their way to gather water from the river with crudely fashioned wooden buckets in hand. They are on a mission.  
  
On a mission, yes, but at the moment there is a little something standing squarely in Daesung's way. And this little something is turning out to be a big problem for him.  
  
He stares with trepidation at the squirrel in his path.  
  
"What are you doing? Why did you stop?" Seunghyun has caught up to him. That means Youngbae will not be far behind.  
  
Daesung bites back a groan, beyond embarrassed. He must be the most spineless wolf to ever exist, and Seunghyun is about to witness it. There is simply no way around it.  
  
No way around it, or around this damn _squirrel_.  
  
"What is--" Seunghyun peers over his shoulder-- not hard to do when he has a few inches on Daesung in height. "Are you shitting me? This little guy? Really?" He grins down at the squirrel, which flicks its tail and clucks angrily up at the two of them. "Hey little man. You think you're so tough," he coos at the thing.  
  
Daesung stares down at it, leery. It looks like a little monster poised to spring at them at any second.  
  
Seunghyun turns to him, disbelief splashed across his face. "You're something else, you know that?"  
  
"Squirrels are aggressive. And intimidating." Daesung gulps. "And more dangerous than you think."  
  
Seunghyun splutters. "Aggressive, sure, but dangerous? Hardly." He eyes the enraged critter, sizing it up with disdainful eyes. "I could scoop that little rat off the ground and crush it in my palm if I wanted to."  
  
Daesung is fairly sure that is an exaggeration, but he is willing to let him try. As long as all he has to do is stand back and observe... from a safe distance.  
  
"Intimidating? I'll show you intimidating."  
  
With a familiar gleam in his eye, Seunghyun drops his bucket and starts forward. He strides past Daesung, making a straight line toward their little nuisance, if not to snatch it up then to at least scare it off the path so they can continue on their way. Should be easy.  
  
But to both his and Daesung's surprise, the squirrel holds its ground. It rushes at Seunghyun over and over again, darting after him no matter which way he tries to go. Left, right, it makes no difference. There is just no way around the angry rodent-- not without a fight.  
  
Daesung grins and feels a little vindicated. But only a little.  
  
"What's the matter?" he drawls. " _Crush it in my palm_ , isn't that what you said?"  
  
Seunghyun glowers down at the creature where it stubbornly refuses to move aside for him. "I'm impressed by it, is all. It's got spirit. It's full of fight."  
  
"Uh-huh."  
  
"Plucky little thing," Seunghyun chuckles, "I admire that, you know."  
  
"Yes, I know," Daesung says with a knowing smile.  
  
Seunghyun backs off, reclaiming his place at Daesung's side. "Think I feel like letting it live, after all."  
  
"Seunghyun," Daesung says, his smile only growing. "Just admit it. You're afraid of it too."  
  
"I am not."  
  
"You _are_."  
  
"I am not!"  
  
"You're intimidated by a squirrel!" Daesung laughs freely. Seunghyun growls and makes a grab for the nape of his neck-- but his hand closes on empty air as Daesung skitters backwards and laughs harder, just out of reach.  
  
"What are you two staring at?"  
  
And there is Youngbae at last. Maybe now they will finally get somewhere.  
  
"Oh my god," Youngbae exclaims. To Seunghyun he says, "Really? Daesung I would expect this from, but you too?"  
  
"I was just--!"  
  
"Move," Youngbae says shortly, and with that he barrels ahead, running full-tilt at their tiny adversary.  
  
The squirrel freezes up at the sight of him, motionless for one fleeting, precarious moment. Daesung stops as well, holds his breath as he waits to see how it will end. Will it fight or will it flee? Is he about to witness Youngbae do battle with an irate squirrel? If they meet in combat, how much damage could the squirrel _really_ do before Youngbae ends its miserable little life in his clawed hands-- or between his teeth? Where the rest of them prefer to begin with their talons, Youngbae goes straight to teeth, loves putting things in his mouth only to _tear them apart_.  
  
This could get uglier than any of them realize.  
  
But at the last possible moment, the squirrel pivots on its tiny, clawed feet and retreats, darting off the path and scurrying nimbly up a tree. From there it continues it's chittering at them-- to Daesung it may as well be screaming-- this time from safely up above, beyond even Seunghyun's reach.  
  
"Come on, the way's clear," Youngbae says, passing boldy beneath and glaring up at the squirrel all the way.  
  
Seunghyun frowns but starts forward as instructed, seeming appropriately shamed by the way he hangs his head as he goes. Daesung shares his pain, he does.  
  
But at least Youngbae had expected this kind of cowardice from him. What can he say? Animals, their wild neighbors, are formidable foes when they want to be. Seunghyun will have to make up for it later, his loss of face in front of Youngbae. He will not tolerate the other wolf thinking of him as weak. Daesung knows that for Seunghyun, his pride is paramount.  
  
With its beady, black eyes, the squirrel peers down at them while they pass, too far to reach from atop its perch but, to Daesung, no less menacing. He ducks as he goes under and, until he is on the other side, free and clear, does not let the creature out of his sight.  
  
What if it launches at him the second he lets his guard down? What if it lands on his head and-- Daesung gulps-- gets its tiny claws caught in his hair? He won't risk it.  
  
Ahead of them Youngbae is quiet, though not without effort. Youngbae _loves_ an opportunity to needle Seunghyun. Daesung knows what a challenge it is for him to hold his tongue.  
  
_Thank you, Youngbae_ , he sends his way silently.  
  
"What was it so upset about, anyway? What did you do?" Seunghyun grumbles under his breath.  
  
"Hell if I know." One moment the path had been open, the next it had been closed off by that-- that _thing_. He hadn't been paying attention until it began screeching at him, trying to turn him back.  
  
He knocks his bucket against Seunghyun's and says, meaning every bit of it, "Thanks for trying though."  
  
"Squirrels, man." Seunghyun replies, eyes haunted and wide. "Fucking _squirrels_."

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
Not an hour later they have gathered what they need and are leisurely making their way back home, their buckets heavy with water from the river, filled nearly to the brim.  
  
The somewhat strained calm after what Daesung has dubbed The Squirrel Incident only lasts so long. Youngbae proves unable to hold his silence forever, to no one's surprise.  
  
"So, Seunghyun," he says, eyeing the older wolf with a face that foretells trouble. "Since when are you afraid of squirrels?"  
  
Daesung sighs while Seunghyun tackles Youngbae playfully, nearly sending the both of them to the ground, buckets and all.  
  
Before long the two of them are locked in competition, bumping shoulders as each aims to upset the other's water bucket. Behind them Daesung laughs at their antics, a golden sound that is the sweetest music to Seunghyun's ears. The goal is a simple one: triumph over Youngbae, and keep Daesung's sun-filled smile alive.  
  
But then, simple suits them, doesn't it?  
  
"Okay, stop, stop!" Youngbae finally cries, turning his back to Seunghyun and guarding his bucket zealously. A little water sloshes over the side as he does so. "I'm sorry! I take it back."  
  
"You can't just take it back!" Seunghyun says, breathless with laughter and something else, something predatory gleaming in his eyes.  
  
If only it were that easy. He laughs-- _if only_. He will make sure that Youngbae pays for picking on him. He _will_ send Youngbae back to the river alone to collect water again while he and Daesung continue on together, just the two of them.  
  
So he tries and tries again, ducking and swerving into Youngbae's side until, gradually, the other wolf tires of their play. He loses interest and breaks free, jogging away without them, his still mostly full bucket of water in tow, kept safely from Seunghyun's reach. With only a cursory look back to see if they are following, he soon disappears.  
  
Seunghyun watches him go, tail drooping. He feels... not defeated, but certainly disappointed.  
  
A bucket knocks heavily against his in a friendly way, sending a splash of water over the side. He perks up, remembering that he is not alone, not yet. Youngbae may have ended their play... but there is still Daesung.  
  
"No, no! Don't you dare!" Daesung half-laughs, half-cries, showing Seunghyun his back and hunching over his own bucket, trying to safeguard it.  
  
Seunghyun grins wildly. _Resistance is futile._  
  
He charges at Daesung and sends their buckets crashing into each other with an ear-splitting thwack. Win or lose, it does not matter, not anymore. His blood sings with the need to overpower, to overwhelm. At the way Daesung spins in vain and cowers in play, Seunghyun laughs, overjoyed.  
  
"We'll have to go back!" Daesung shouts, dismayed. A moment later he shrieks as a sharp impact from Seunghyun's bucket sends his flying out of his hands. It hits the ground with a heavy sound, and he can do nothing but watch as its contents spill over the grass and soak into the soil, gone in seconds. "S-Seunghyun!"  
  
"We didn't come out here to water the grass, Daesung," Seunghyun cannot resist taunting.  
  
"You--" Daesung shoves at him playfully. Staring down in mourning at the patch of wet dirt under his feet, he says, "Now I have to go back."  
  
"I'll go with you," Seunghyun offers. "Since I know you're afraid to go alone."  
  
"Ugh," Daesung groans. "I'm not afraid."  
  
"Of course not," Seunghyun says, "As long as there are no more squirrels, right?"  
  
"Right," Daesung laughs. Then, "Not afraid, but you're coming with me anyway." He snatches up his now-empty bucket and stalks away, heading back to the river.  
  
Seunghyun trots after him, but only after Daesung checks to make sure he is being followed.  
  
"Hey," he whines, craning his head around to catch Daesung's eye. "Hey, don't be mad."  
  
"I'm not mad."  
  
"Do you hate me?"  
  
"What? No," Daesung's laugh is colored with surprise, and it is beautiful. "No, although you didn't have to turn on me like that. Just because Youngbae was done playing..."  
  
"So," Seunghyun says, walking backwards as he talks, "You still love me."  
  
Daesung gives him a curious look. "Yes? Even though you're a savage."  
  
"How much?" Seunghyun prods, "How much do you love me?"  
  
Daesung groans, "Seunghyun..."  
  
"Show me."  
  
Daesung rolls his eyes skyward and sighs, exasperated but still so fond. "Come here." And when Seunghyun does he darts in nimbly and pecks him sweetly on the lips.  
  
It is chaste and dry, just a quick meeting and parting of lips. Hardly a proper kiss, Seunghyun thinks, far from satisfied.  
  
"That's it?" He expects more than _that_.  
  
So he captures Daesung in a demanding grip, cupping the base of his skull to haul him in close, and this time the kiss that arises is a far cry from the innocent thing Daesung had laid on him moments before-- this one is sloppy-wet and open-mouthed and scorching hot. Seunghyun pants excitedly against his mate's parted lips, still riled from their earlier play, buzzing with a surplus of energy that threatens to run over. If that happens, where will it go?  
  
As always, Daesung meets him eagerly, matching him blow for blow, and Seunghyun wonders if the innocent act had been just that all along-- an _act_. Still waters run deep in Daesung, and Seunghyun delights in every glimpse he catches of the wild thing lying in wait beneath the other's outwardly quiet, unassuming nature.  
  
Seunghyun needs an outlet, and in Daesung he has found it.  
  
And so they laugh into each other's open mouths, passing puffs of hot air between them while they suck at each other's hungry faces with spit-slick, swollen lips, and for a moment Seunghyun feels no separation, no barrier dividing them. For one profound moment they are one being, a fire inside them melting them together, and Seunghyun is not sure he has ever been happier to be alive.  
  
Daesung surges against him, knocking him back a step, and his foot finds uneven ground. Dizzy with desire thick in the air between them, Seunghyun goes down hard.  
  
Of course, he takes Daesung down with him.  
  
On the forest floor they roll, over and over, picking up bits of dirt and twigs as they go, trading positions as each vies for the upper hand. With every pass Daesung's face _shines_ , and for Seunghyun, everything around them falls away.  
  
Daesung's smile is like sunlight striking water at that precise angle such that it momentarily blinds with its brilliance. Seunghyun closes his eyes and it is there, burned into memory, as clear as if he was staring right at it. That bright smile lights up his world. The sun itself cannot compare.  
  
Seunghyun's smile, he is sure, is not as luminous nor half as warm; he is silver to Daesung's gold.  
  
And like Daesung, Seunghyun had been smiling when they first hit the ground... But somewhere amid their wrestling, somewhere inside the cage of the other wolf's arms and legs, somewhere under powerful hips pinning him against packed earth, hard and unforgiving, the grin slips from his face. It clatters to the ground with a hollow sound like a dry bone too long in the sun.  
  
He feels trapped.  
  
He bucks against Daesung's weight, suddenly _furious_. The other man laughs and only bears down on him harder. He is smiling still, but all Seunghyun sees is how he looms over him, his body a shadowy silhouette, ominous against the pale evening sky.  
  
" _Get off me_ ," Seunghyun snarls with a voice that threatens violence.  
  
"What's wrong?" Daesung laughs crisply, eyes crinkling up until they disappear in that way Seunghyun usually loves.  
  
But he does not budge, and Seunghyun shoves at whatever parts of him he can reach-- strong thighs, strong chest, strong arms-- _fuck_ , he thinks in a panic, Daesung's gentle disposition makes it easy to forget how every part of him is so _strong_. His body is sturdy and sound and solidly built, the perfect image of a healthy, young wolf. He cannot throw him.  
  
"I think this means I win this round," Daesung says, batting his hands away, tail wagging behind him, and Seunghyun realizes belatedly that he thinks they are still playing.  
  
 Seunghyun is done playing.  
  
His fury mixed with fear boils over and he heaves upward with all his might, pouring his whole body into it. Finally, _finally_ , Daesung topples over and off. He catches himself on one arm, surprised, but before he can do much more than that Seunghyun lunges at him and takes him fully to the ground.  
  
"What--" Daesung coughs, flat on his stomach, Seungyun landing hard on his back. Seunghyun wrenches his arm back to subdue him, twisting it cruelly at the shoulder until Daesung yelps in pain and goes still under him.  
  
For a long, dangerous moment neither of them moves a muscle.  
  
"Want to try that again?" Seunghyun growls in a voice that's been _shredded_. His arm shakes with the force of his hold on Daesung. "I fucking _dare_ you."  
  
Daesung's reply is to whimper under him, taut all over, as still as he can be-- but it is not still enough. Seunghyun bears down on him again, squeezing at the arm in his grip hard enough to bruise.  
  
Daesung gasps into the dirt, "S-- Seunghyun, _stop_ \--"  
  
Seunghyun should stop, he knows this. But swept up in a storm of violence, he imagines another scenario, in another world, perhaps. One in which he puts all his weight into it, all his pent-up emotion adding to the pressure until, with an audible _pop_ , all resistance vanishes.  
  
The thought alone gives him a small measure of relief.  
  
A moment later his imaginings become reality, at least in part. Daesung cries out sharply and there is a _crack_ , Seunghyun _hears_ it, and it pulls him up from the depths of his musings and into the shallows where he can think straight again.  
  
_Shit, shit, **shit**_ , he thinks, releasing Daesung and finding that he can't clamber off him fast enough, consumed for one terrible moment by the thought that he has just done something truly awful. He had only meant to put a little fear in him, not _dislocate his fucking shoulder._  
  
They roll apart. Seunghyun watches as Daesung sits up and hugs his arm to his chest, rubbing at his abused shoulder with his other hand. The way his face pinches up in pain resonates in Seunghyun, gnawing at his heart until it feels frayed at the edges.  
  
Seunghyun forces down the urge to flee the scene, and says only, "Daesung."  
  
He feels like a monster.  
  
"Sorry," Daesung mumbles at last, the hand rubbing at his shoulder slowing to a stop. "I forgot that you don't... I forgot." The curtain of his hair hides his eyes, and Seunghyun _hates_ that, but he is also so grateful.  
  
Because yes, Seunghyun does not take well to being pinned, not even in play, and all the pack knows it... but Daesung doesn't deserve that kind of violence. Not from him. _Never_ from him. Seunghyun feels ugly inside and out. Where is the line that separates warning from wounding? At what point does it begin to blur?  
  
Daesung is the best thing ever to happen to him. Sometimes, in the dark, desolate hours of the night when all the pack are sleeping, Daesung dipping into dreams and leaving him alone with his thoughts, Seunghyun wrestles with an old foe, a fear that will not let him rest.  
  
He worries that while Daesung is the best thing for him, he may be the worst thing for Daesung.  
  
"How's your arm?" Seunghyun tries, pitching his voice low and soft, hoping to convey his remorse, the ache in his heart.  
  
"It's fine." Daesung stares down at the ground with dry eyes.  
  
"Is it?"  
  
"It just popped. It's no big deal." A small laugh-- a sad, pitiful thing-- comes tumbling out. "Happens sometimes when I stretch. First thing in the morning, you know? My shoulders pop. My fingers too, and sometimes my knees--"  
  
"Why did you cry out?" Seunghyun asks, not convinced.  
  
"It surprised me." Daesung shrugs with his other shoulder, the one Seunghyun hadn't touched.  
  
"Here," Seunghyun says, scooting closer, and it strikes him suddenly, that mishaps like this are not new to them. Seunghyun sometimes wonders how many times this is destined to happen. How often must he lose control before Daesung's trusting nature is worn away and replaced with a lasting wariness? Daesung loves him, this Seunghyun knows, but fear is a powerful tool for survival, second only to pain. Fear is a hard lesson to unlearn.  
  
He takes Daesung's arm in his hands-- gently this time, carefully as he can-- and lifts it, manipulating it slowly. "Roll your arm," he says, and Daesung does so obediently. He needs to see for himself that his other half is okay, that he isn't hiding his hurts just to spare him the pain.  
  
Because Daesung would. Because Daesung has.  
  
"See," Daesung says after a moment. "It's okay." Seunghyun lets his arm down but isn't ready to let the rest of him go, not yet. Giving up his arm, he settles instead for taking his hand.  
  
"I didn't mean to hurt you," he says.  
  
"I know."  
  
"I'm..." Seunghyun chokes on the words he most needs to speak-- _I'm sorry_ , he can't seem to say, the beast in him not ready to admit fault. Daesung waits quietly, patient as always. Seunghyun doesn't understand how he does it. "I'm glad you're okay."  
  
That was not what he wanted, but Daesung seems to accept it. He meets Seunghyun's gaze and flashes him a consoling smile, as if _he_ was the one among them wounded. He fucking hates it. It's not quite right on Daesung, cool and brittle on features normally so warm and inviting... But it's what he is given, and he will take it as the peace offering it is.  
  
"I really didn't mean to," Seunghyun says, giving his hand a squeeze for emphasis.  
  
"I know," Daesung replies again, and Seunghyun gets the distinct sense that he does not wish to discuss it any further.  
  
So they don't. Carefully, he helps Daesung to his feet, pats down their wrinkled clothing, and gathers up both their forgotten pails.  
  
"I'll go alone."  
  
It shocks Seunghyun like icy water poured down his back. "What?"  
  
"You still have some water." Daesung waves a hand at Seunghyun's pail, more than half-full with clear, cool water from the river. "You don't need to come with me. Just... go home."  
  
Seunghyun stares at him. Watches him turn to go, face to the ground, tail limp and lifeless behind him, empty pail hanging from his left arm this time instead of his right.  
  
Without further thought, he lifts his bucket high and overturns it. The water splashes over his shoes and wets the bottoms of his pant legs and he doesn't care.

Daesung wants to be alone right now? He shouldn't be. He won't let him be.  
  
Daesung stares-- first at Seunghyun's now-empty bucket, then at Seunghyun himself, a peculiar expression taking shape on his face. "Okay," he says as Seunghyun goes to his side and takes his bucket from him, intent on carrying them both. "Okay."  
  
And so they return to the river together to finish the task they had set out to do. Not another word passes between them all the way there and back.  
  
Seunghyun detests the silence, but then, what are words between them, anyway? Actions speak louder. He will find other ways to right his wrongs.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

 

 

"Hey Seungri, have you seen my--"  
  
_Shoes_ , he was going to say, _have you seen my shoes_. Because the others are out, out scouting or patrolling or who the fuck knows, all but him and Seungri, and Daesung is bored as hell waiting for them to return. He plans to slip on his shoes and find them in no time. One of them, at least.  
  
He would rather be out there with them than stuck here with Seungri. A week has passed since their run-in with the coyotes, and Seungri has been irritable ever since. His mood deteriorates by the day and too often Daesung finds himself the unwitting target of the other boy's increasingly short temper.  
  
The others do not know the truth of what happened. Seungri had opted not to tell them about the coyotes, too embarrassed to share, and in solidarity Daesung had kept his silence. Still, Jiyong had clucked at him in concern and had taken him by the hand to inspect the cuts up close... until Seungri had snatched it away and retreated to another room to nurse his wounds in solitude.  
  
And ever since then a dark cloud has followed him wherever he goes.  
  
Daesung doesn't understand it. Already he feels like he sometimes treads on thin ice with Seunghyun; his feet come down too hard and he sees the cracks splintering the icy surface. He is well practiced by now at knowing when to ease back to a total collapse.  
  
But sometimes he misses the signs. Sometimes, driven by a careless curiosity, he keeps going. And sometimes he pays for it. It is an exercise in conflict prevention, painful when he missteps and sometimes draining even when he succeeds, but he loves Seunghyun enough to go the distance with him, cracks underfoot and all.  
  
Daesung is learning Seunghyun every day, his erratic behavior more predictable with every episode. Seungri, however... Seungri is a mystery to him. One that Daesung doesn't think he has the capacity right now to solve.  
  
He just wants to find his shoes and slip out for a bit.  
  
But the rest of his question dies on his tongue when he rounds the corner and finds the room that the five of them share occupied. By none other than Seungri-- on the floor, back to the wall, fly open and hand working furiously over his erect cock.  
  
Daesung stands in the doorway and stares.  
  
"You're..."  
  
Seungri greets him with barely a glance, paying him little mind, all his attention firmly fixed on the action between his legs.  
  
"Yeah? What?" Seungri sighs, sounding simultaneously pleased and annoyed. His eyes open then, nothing but narrow slits, just enough for him to shoot Daesung a look that _burns_ with heat and arousal and mounting frustration. Oddly enough, he seems angry.  
  
Daesung's hand on the wood tightens. "You, uh... You okay?"  
  
"Hardly," Seungri grinds out, gritting his teeth. "This is awkward."  
  
"Sorry," Daesung says automatically. "I'll go."  
  
"Not _you_ ," Seungri moans. "My _hand_. Damnit, my _left_ hand."  
  
Daesung's eyes drop to the bandaged hand looking a bit useless at Seungri's side. It's been wrapped in a strip of fabric torn haphazardly from an old shirt of Youngbae's that he had long since stopped wearing. They don't have much, but they don't need much; even some of what little they do have they never even put to use.  
  
"This is fuckin' hard to do with this hand. Feels wrong," Seungri gripes.  
  
_Well_ , Daesung thinks, _this explains a few things_. After he had been bitten, Seungri had complained loudly about hurting his right hand-- with clear emphasis on it being his _right hand_. No wonder. Daesung almost laughs. He stops himself just in time.  
  
"I'm surprised your hand hasn't healed yet," he observes. They don't call it advanced healing for nothing, this ability they have been blessed with. Daesung is never more grateful for his werewolf heritage than when he is wounded.  
  
"Yeah, well, it hasn't," Seungri says, frowning deeply. "This fucking sucks, man."  
  
"What about the others?" Daesung points out. "Youngbae? Jiyong? They'd be happy to lend you a hand." It is a miracle that he manages to say that with a straight face.  
  
"I don't want them to know." The set of Seungri's jaw as he says it is stubborn, determined.  
  
"Know what?"  
  
"That it's still bothering me," Seungri huffs. "They might start asking questions."  
  
Daesung frowns. This isn't the sort of thing they should be keeping a secret from the rest of the pack, no matter how trivial. They have to be open with each other, sharing news of anything out of the ordinary, no matter the potential for embarrassment. It is the only way they can hope to survive out here. Luckily for Seungri, Daesung is not the type to go around spilling others' secrets. Seungri will tell the rest of the pack about their brush with the local coyotes when he is ready... At least, he hopes.  
  
In the meantime, Seungri continues on as enthusiastically as if Daesung wasn't even there, evidently not minding his presence at all. But it's clear to Daesung that he is struggling. His left hand glides up and down the length of his cock where it stands proudly above the nest of dark hairs between his legs. _As proud as Seungri himself_ , Daesung thinks wryly. Thick with blood, it is an angry red-- not unlike Seungri's face-- and seems painfully hard-- also not unlike Seungri's face. His skin is wet where Seungri has slicked himself up with his pre-come for a smoother glide, his hand squeezing and pulling the pleasure out of himself with painstaking effort.  
  
But the movement of his left hand is stiff, the angle unfamiliar, the action unpracticed. Seungri is struggling, and it is hard to watch.  
  
Daesung feels for him. They are not the best of friends, to say the least, but to stand by and watch the other boy suffer like this is almost as excruciating for him as it must be for Seungri.  
  
And yet, for some reason he cannot tear his eyes away.  
  
Seungri is of about average length, but his cock, Daesung notes, is surprisingly thick for his otherwise average build. He wonders, for the briefest of moments, what it would feel like in his mouth, how its girth would stretch his lips wide, how the slick seeping from the tip would taste on his tongue. He is struck low in the gut by a pang of what he thinks is sympathy... before it reveals itself boldly as arousal. It sinks and settles, pooling between his legs, his own cock waking and stirring with interest.  
  
Before Daesung knows it his mouth is opening and words are falling out.  
  
"I could help," he says, quiet as a mouse.  
  
Seungri rolls his head to the side, his short-cropped, shaggy, blond hair scouring the wall behind him.  
  
"Uh?" His eyes fall shut and he bares his teeth, hand cupping and palming at the head of his cock in a way that speaks of desperation. "Did you say something?"  
  
Daesung pulls back on the reins, taking his own lust in hand long enough to think this over. He wants to jump in and help, he _does_ , even if it's for entirely selfish reasons. Because he would not be in it to please the other boy; Seungri is the only member of the pack he has not had yet, and he only wants to know how he'll _taste_...  
  
But...  
  
"Nevermind. It's nothing."  
  
With anyone else, any of the others, sure. Absolutely. He'd be on them before they could complete their request, mouthing at their cocks like they're candy. In fact, he'd be on them-- or under them if they preferred-- long _before_ they could ask, their interest made clear to him by sight and smell and, if he is close enough, _feel_. Words have a knack for getting in the way.  
  
It should be nothing. It should be the easiest thing. He and his packmates-- Seunghyun, Jiyong, Youngbae-- do this for each other all the time. It is more than a favor, it's a fun way to pass the time. It's their favorite kind of play. It's packbonding. It's _them_.  
  
But with Seungri...  
  
Daesung is not ready to do this with Seungri, not until the two of them are on better terms. Fooling around with Seungri right now won't help. It might only make things worse.  
  
"Whatever," Seungri mutters and goes back to himself, his mind on one thing and one thing only.  
  
And that's the end of that. Daesung knows when he is being shut out. He can't watch this anymore, anyway. So he backs out of the room and waddles off, that too-familiar tightness between his legs making the pain of his retreat a physical one.  
  
His _retreat_. God, Daesung is tired of feeling like he's always somehow escaping from Seungri, like the other boy keeps running him off, sometimes without even trying. What is it about him, this new packmate of his? Why can't they just-- get along?  
  
Seungri will just have to tackle this one alone, he decides, at least until he swallows his pride and seeks some help. He is on his own.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
Space limitations in their small home leave them little choice but to band together in one room every night, curling up in the winter and sprawling out in the summer amid a haphazard nest of blankets on the floor. Daesung has never minded it much; he suspects that even if they had room to spread out they would still find themselves all sharing the same sleeping space. After all, sleep is a vulnerable state. They are are safer within reach of each other. Safer together.    
  
However, while the ground may be pleasantly cool in the summer, it leaches the heat from their bodies in winter. And in the coldest months of the year, no number of blankets, no matter how thick or how fluffy, are quite enough to ward off the chill.  
  
So the day they score themselves a mattress-- an honest-to-god, padded mattress with springs-- is a special day indeed. They drag the thing into the house, sweating with the effort of hauling its bulk across fields and hills in the heat of mid-summer. Small human settlements are known to pop up from time to time along the borders of their territory, but they rarely last. They are known to fade just as quickly, their occupants unable to carve out a life for themselves like the wolves who dwell here.  
  
After all, this is wolf territory. Humans have no place in these lands.  
  
But Daesung appreciates the rise and fall of their neighboring human populations, as long as they don't encroach; it means that when the settlers have up and left their homes, the few belongings they leave behind fall into his eager hands-- well, his and his packmates' hands.  
  
It is in one such dwelling, a long-forgotten ruin of a house along the southern edge of their domain, that they discover the mattress. Times like this, if they are lucky they find other useful items to salvage such as old clothes, or cups and bowls for drinking. Daesung does not mind drinking from cupped hands, but there is something about the solid weight of a mug in his palms that he appreciates.  
  
Sometimes their curiosity gets the better of them, and they nab small trinkets along the way. Today Daesung claims a heavy, brass candle holder bearing a half-melted candlestick. A quick sniff at the candle reveals that it was fashioned from animal fat rather than wax; he knows that scent well. The gleam of polished metal in the sunlight as he turns it over in his hands is mesmerizing, unlike anything he has seen in years.  
  
"Wow... so soft," he hears from across the room. It is Seungri, turning a pillow over and over in his hands, staring down at it in awe.  
  
Daesung's curiosity is piqued. "Can I feel?"  
  
Seungri hides the pillow behind his back like it's unearthed treasure, for his eyes only.  
  
Daesung makes a leap for it. The tips of his fingers just brush the edges, but it isn't enough-- he wants to know how soft it is, and why Seungri likes it so much. "I'm not trying to take it! I just want to touch!"  
  
"No!" Seungri shouts, tucking the pillow against his stomach as he spins around to avoid him.  
  
"Why not?!" Daesung falls over him from behind, hands scrabbling at the plush thing in his arms.  
  
"Because it's mine! I found it!"  
  
Seungri is working so hard to keep it away from him. It only makes Daesung want it more.  
  
"I know it's yours! I just--"  
  
When he finally gets his hands on it-- and god, it is soft-- they pull and tug at the casing like the wild things they are until Daesung feels more than hears a distinct _riiiip_ \-- and in the next moment delicate, white down feathers are floating through the air around them, like fat snowflakes.  
  
"What the hell, Daesung!" Seungri hits him once over the head with the rapidly-emptying pillow.  
  
Daesung blinks in confusion. But a quick glance down at his hands reveals the tips of claws peeking out, come unsheathed in the heat of the moment. His face heats in shame.  
  
"Seungri--"  
  
"Seriously! Why did you have to-- ugh, whatever." Seungri throws the remains of the pillow at him and trudges off, no doubt in search of something else that might catch his interest. Daesung hopes he finds something better than the pillow he destroyed.  
  
He hadn't meant to.  
  
"I'm sorry," he says softly, no one but himself around to hear it.  
  
He picks the sad-looking thing up off the ground and holds it in both hands. It sags between his fingers, a steady stream of feathers finding their way through the gashes he had made. Idly, he rolls a feather between his fingers and wonders if there might be a Daesung-sized hole nearby that he can go and crawl into. Just for a little while.  
  
That is when Youngbae's cry of delight brings all of them running, Daesung included. He has found the real treasure in this trash heap that was once a home.  
  
Later, finally back at their home, the mattress hits the floor, sending up a cloud of dust through the room. It is old and worn, stained with dirt and who knows what else, yet every one of them leer at it like it's a slab of fresh meat.  
  
They offer it to Jiyong-- alpha privileges go a long way. But it fits two comfortably, and as the considerate leader Jiyong is, the five of them take turns with it. Jiyong and Youngbae claim it one night, Seunghyun and Daesung another, Youngbae and Seungri after that, and so on. The old mattress is a sad thing indeed, but to them it is invaluable.  
  
And it's great, for a time-- until Seunghyun and Daesung find their mattress privileges at risk.  
  
"It's noisy. The springs squeak," Youngbae complains, "And you two fuck like rabbits on that thing every chance you get. It's getting worse. I can't take it anymore."  
  
Seunghyun looks to Jiyong for help. Daesung does as well, thought he tries not to be as obvious about it.  
  
"Well, he's not wrong," Jiyong says after a suspenseful pause. "Sorry, Seunghyun. Daesung. We don't normally mind it, but on that mattress..." He lifts a hand and delicately touches his ear, expression twisting into one of pain. "It's just grating."  
  
Daesung understands. Over the years they have all learned to filter out what is important and what's not; they will wake in an instant at the sound of a twig snapping outside, yet can sleep through their packmates' nighttime activities just feet away, undisturbed and unaware.  
  
Except when said nighttime activities involve the squealing of old mattress springs.  
  
"We'd still like to use it if it's okay," Daesung says politely. He turns to his mate. "We'll behave. Right, Seunghyun?"  
  
Seunghyun sticks his lip out in an exaggerated pout that has all of them grinning. "I guess so."  
  
"You better," Youngbae says, "Otherwise I see you spending night after night on the cold, hard ground, just like before."  
  
"We already do that most nights," Seunghyun grumbles. They only get the mattress every once in awhile-- such is the beauty of sharing.  
  
"This is the only time I'm going to ask you two to keep it in your pants. I promise," Jiyong assures them. Daesung thinks he detects a note of sympathy from him, but it's hard to say.  
  
Of course, they don't give each other up entirely. He and Seunghyun simply find quieter ways to pleasure each other in the quiet hours of the night, flanked on all sides by their slumbering packmates.  
  
Like tonight. Tonight the coveted mattress is theirs, and though they can no longer _fuck like rabbits_ atop it, as Youngbae had put it, they are not wasting the opportunity to get each other off in comfort.  
  
Daesung resists the urge to thrust, to follow Seunghyun's hot mouth _up_ as he works over his cock with all the ease that comes with years of practice. Whoever said familiarity breeds contempt was _wrong_. Familiarity breeds amazing blowjobs.  
  
Seunghyun suckles at the tip of his cock, lips puckered right over his slit pulling the pre-come straight up and out of him, and Daesung can hardly stand it, straining with the effort of staying silent while Seunghyun does this to him. He whimpers, head pushing back into the cushioned mattress and hips stuttering up once, twice-- until two strong hands slide from his thighs to hips and return him firmly to the mattress's padded surface. He bounces atop it a few times while the springs settle.  
  
But not before they send up a squeal of warning. Together he and Seunghyun freeze, listening. Nothing but their heavy breaths and a little light snoring from the other end of the room.  
  
Daesung nearly sighs in relief, but before the breath can leave him Seunghyun has crouched over his cock again and swallowed him down easily-- too easily, really. His cockhead fitting snugly against the back of Seunghyun's throat puts his body on high alert, and one long swallow later Daesung is fucking _dissolving_ , coming apart inside Seunghyun's mouth swift and fast and entirely by surprise.  
  
To his credit, he makes only the barest whimper, pleasure swooping in and stealing away his voice at a time when he really did not need to be heard anyway. He feels Seunghyun's lips tighten around him, a self-satisfied smirk fighting its way onto his lover's face as best it can with a mouth full of cock-- not easy to do with lips already stretched wide around Daesung's generous size.  
  
He does not make a habit of flaunting it-- it just isn't in his nature-- but Daesung knows what he's got. Jiyong's effusive praise the day they met had not been for nothing.  
  
Seunghyun sucks up the length of him all the way to the tip until he pulls off his slicked-up cock with a wet sound like lips parting from a steamy kiss.  
  
So blissed out is he that Daesung fails to register Seunghyun moving up the length of his body, creeping closer until his already parted lips are pried open wider. Something warm and viscous and salty drips into his mouth. It dribbles over his tongue and he knows exactly what Seunghyun has just transferred to him.  
  
"Mmph--!" he tries to say in protest, but a hand appears at his throat, a thumb rubbing in slow circles under the hinge of his jaw, and Daesung understands what Seunghyun wants him to do.  
  
Too dazed to think about resisting-- _really_ resisting-- he squeezes his eyes shut and swallows.  
  
A broken groan, muffled sound of skin over skin, and a splash of something hot across the insides of his thighs and over his softening cock tells Daesung that Seunghyun has just finished too.  
  
"You going to clean that up too?" he murmurs, touching a hand to the sticky mess between his legs.  
  
"Mmm," Seunghyun hums, capturing his mouth again in a lethargic kiss.  
  
When Daesung's eyes open again Seunghyun is only inches from his face, tongue swiping over his own lips like a dog licking its chops.  
  
"How's it taste?" he asks Daesung. His face is _fiendish_.  
  
"You know I don't like doing that," Daesung answers, a little miffed even through his post-orgasmic haze. He swallows again to rid himself of the taste, and then once more for good measure.  
  
Seunghyun watches his throat bob. "Only when it's your own. You lap mine up like it's honey. And Jiyong's. And Youngbae's," he retorts, though there is no real heat in it. A hand strokes over Daesung's throat from jaw to collarbone. "You're so thirsty, and I love that."  
  
"Just doing what a wolf does best," Daesung purrs, sated. Then he arches up into Seunghyun's mouth to whisper, "I'll eat you up anytime, anywhere."  
  
Like this they lie there, side by side while they come back down to earth. Seunghyun nibbles leisurely on Daesung's ear while a hand roams his body, palm smoothing over the planes of his abdomen, its wanderlust not yet satisfied.  
  
"Remember that time you came over and over," Seunghyun says, hot breath rushing over his ear as he speaks, "until you had nothing left?"  
  
A shiver wracks Daesung, long fingers teasing again at the base of his cock, soft and still too _sensitive_ to have another go. "Nothing? There was-- _ah_ \-- there was a little still."  
  
"Hardly enough to count."  
  
"You milked me dry," Daesung sighs, stretching out alongside Seunghyun languidly, gravitating toward his heat, even now in the middle of summer. "God, I was so wrung out."  
  
" _Strung_ out is more like it. Something about that was so fucking hot," Seunghyun groans. Fingers stroke lightly up and down his length and it takes all Daesung has not to squirm away from the soft touch. Seunghyun would only follow.  
  
"It was good," Daesung agrees.  
  
"You looked like you were in pain."  
  
"So good it hurt," Daesung amends. But that is their style, isn't it? Seunghyun's inquisitive hand grows a little too bold, long fingers curling around him again and starting to pull while he's still soft and-- and finally Daesung's patience snaps. He catches Seunghyun by the wrist and guides him gently away from his crotch, away from precisely where he does not want to be touched for at least a little while longer. "Okay, now that hurts."  
  
Seunghyun props himself up on one arm and gazes fondly down at him. "We should do it again."  
  
"Again and again until..."  
  
Seunghyun nods.  
  
"Mm," Daesung says noncommittally. Then, abruptly, he sits up and smacks Seunghyun on the chest. "I should do you. See how _you_ like it."  
  
Seunghyun seals himself to Daesung's side, crowding in close as he says, "What makes you think you could? I'll always have something to give you."  
  
"Yeah, sure. You say that, but..." Daesung grins, but even as he pokes fun at him Seunghyun's words send sparks of interest skittering down his spine to pool below. He would be hard again by now if he could manage it. There are times when the period of rest their bodies demand after each session is the only thing that keeps them from going at it again and again.  
  
Youngbae always says time flies when you're having fun. Daesung says time flies when you're getting _fucked_.  
  
"You don't believe me?" Seunghyun looms over him in the dark, but Daesung can see him just fine-- the stubborn set of his jaw, the daring angle of his eyebrows, his large eyes lit up in defiance.  
  
If there is one wolf in this pack who would rise to the challenge, Daesung notes, it's Seunghyun.  
  
"You just wait," he says, grinning up at his mate, knowing full well how it will incite him. "I'll show you what it's like to be so spent-- so used up-- that you're coming _dry_."  
  
"Sounds good to me," Seunghyun says, fearless. "But you know where it'll all be going right? I hope you're ready."  
  
Daesung bites his lip and says shortly, "I know. I look forward to it."  
  
"Then it's settled."  
  
"Yep, you just wa--"  
  
Seunghyun dives in then, more interested in getting started than in having the last word. Daesung's hands fly up and fist in Seunghyun's hair, pulling, until Seunghyun gets the hint and wrenches himself away.  
  
"Wait," Daesung pants, breathless already from the unexpected mauling. Sometimes Seunghyun moves faster than he can keep up with, and that thought alone delivers a throb of arousal straight down the center of his body to his cock, which stirs with the beginnings of renewed interest. He guess it's been long enough now.  
  
_No_ , he tells himself. He clutches at Seunghyun's hair and centers himself, willing his hungry body to _calm the fuck down_.  
  
"What? What are we waiting for?" Seunghyun says, an impatient energy crackling in the space around him, as it often does when he is denied something he wants. Daesung feels it when Seunghyun ducks low and nips at his lips again-- _smells_ it like he does the air after a nearby lightning strike, sharp and pungent to his sensitive nose-- and it takes every ounce of Daesung's willpower to turn away yet again from his mate's eager advances.  
  
Denying Seunghyun is never easy. Not when Daesung wants it just as much.  
  
But there is more at stake here than Seunghyun realizes, so Daesung gasps, "Not tonight, not here. We can't." His hand thumps the mattress so Seunghyun will understand.  
  
Seunghyun pauses. Then, " _Fuck_ ," he swears loudly. " _Fuck, fuck, fu_ \--" Daesung clamps a hand over his dirty mouth.  
  
"It's not worth it, not worth losing this." Now that he has experienced the heaven that is sleeping on a mattress, Daesung cannot go back to making his bed on the cold, hard, ground, not every night.  
  
"Maybe Jiyong was only bluffing?"  
  
"I don't want to find out," Daesung says, completely serious.  
  
"Damn. I like the sounds it makes when I'm fucking you," Seunghyun says, turning downright petulant.  
  
Daesung laughs-- _very quietly_ , of course.  
  
"During the day then," he decides. "When they're not sleeping. We'll have it all to ourselves." The mattress, the room, probably even the whole house-- shack, shelter, whatever it can be called-- while the others are out.  
  
"Cockblocked by my packmates," Seunghyun whines into his neck while Daesung tries combing fingers through his hair, a veritable bird's nest badly in need of grooming. He knows his own can't be much better. "Never thought I'd see the day."  
  
"Patience," Daesung urges. "It's a--"  
  
"Don't you dare say _virtue_. Fuck virtues. I'm a wolf, wolves don't need virtues."  
  
"Okay, I won't," Daesung says with a silly grin, unable to hide his amusement, so why even try? "But I'm a wolf too, and look at me." _I am the image of self-restraint_ , he would like to add. Now if only his fingers tangled in Seunghyun's hair were not the only thing keeping him from taking his hips in hand and crushing them against his, finding friction right where he needs it most.  
  
Truth be told, if Daesung had things his way, he would be on his stomach right now, ass in the air with Seunghyun hard at work over him, doing their best to make already squeaky springs that much worse. Together they could _ruin_ this old thing.  
  
"Your cock is digging a hole into my hip," Seunghyun deadpans. " _Patient_ is not the word I would use to describe how that feels."  
  
Daesung flushes, above and below. "Okay, but you don't see me doing anything about it, do you."  
  
Seunghyun grudgingly agrees and says no more, instead busying himself with the throat bared to him. Like a reflex, Daesung tips his head back, all too eagerly giving Seunghyun more room to work with as he laps the salt and sweat from his skin.  
  
Shit, Seunghyun isn't going to make this easy for either of them, is he? He is a creature of action; if there is one thing sure to get a wolf fired up, it is telling him he must _wait_.  
  
Daesung gulps and steels himself for the long night to come.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
Seunghyun is napping, propped up against a mesquite tree whose trunk grows more parallel to the ground than toward the sky. It makes for a convenient backrest while he and Daesung cool off in the shade after the long hike that brought them out here. In the oppressive heat of a late summer afternoon such as this one, resting is about all they can do. Rest, and conserve their energy.  
  
The day is nearly unbearably humid and the wind weaker than he likes, the air itself like a heavy weight bearing down on him. He cannot even muster the strength to sweep away his hair clinging miserably to his forehead where it is damp with sweat. He cannot imagine moving even an inch from this spot without a very good reason.  
  
He soon finds his very good reason.  
  
When he opens his eyes it is to a sight he always welcomes, no matter the weather. Hot or cold, rain or shine, nothing can dampen the sight of Daesung flat on his front on the ground, tucked between Seunghyun's spread legs, mouthing at his cock through his jeans.  
  
He buries long fingers in Daesung's shaggy hair as Daesung reaches up and surreptitiously undoes his fly, opening his pants just enough to get at what he seeks. Eyes flick to his face to check for his reaction. Seunghyun smiles and lets him do as he pleases.  
  
And so he gazes down at the other wolf, admiring his mate's familiar features while he works. His mouth opens wide over Seunghyun's growing erection, his large lips soft as always, his breath blistering hot through the fabric of Seunghyun's boxer-briefs. His tail flicks lazily from side to side to the rhythm of his lips.  
  
Only moments ago Seunghyun felt like he was suffocating in the sweltering heat. Now he wants nothing more than to be drowning in heat-- in _Daesung's_ heat.  
  
He cards a hand through the other's sweat-damp hair. "Hungry?"  
  
"Might be," is all he gets.  
  
"Don't be like that," he says, fingers in Daesung's hair curling, clenching. "You might not get what you want."  
  
Eyes flick up to him again. The last thing Seunghyun wants to do is ruin this moment with words, so he settles back, shuts up, and lets Daesung work his magic. He pets at his hair and scratches at his scalp while the other wolf licks and nips and mouths at his fattening cock through damp fabric until Seunghyun's shorts feel gross, like one big wet patch, warm and sticky with a combination of Daesung's saliva and his own slick gathering around the tip.  
  
"Okay, enough of that," Seunghyun huffs and tugs his shorts down so that his cock springs free, hooking the material under his balls to keep it there. With a grin he says, "All yours. Knock yourself out."  
  
Daesung does not need an invitation to do this, but he sure seems to like the extra incentive. He _falls_ onto Seunghyun's cock, the full length of it disappearing between his lips so fast that if this was not _Daesung_ between his legs, if he did not trust this wolf with his life, his heart, and other equally irreplaceable parts of himself, Seunghyun might even be a little nervous.  
  
After all, wolves are by nature ferocious creatures with insatiable appetites. Were he doing this with a stranger, there is no telling what might happen in the heat of the moment.  
  
Daesung takes what he is given with unfailing gratitude, but he also gives back as good as he gets-- often better. And so he receives Seunghyun ravenously, sucking him down deep and swallowing around his hardness like Seunghyun's cock holds the key to sating his hunger for as long as he lives, eliminating the age-old need to feed. _Shit_ , Seunghyun thinks, Daesung drinks him in like he'll never need to find water again, all that he needs right here between Seunghyun's legs.  
  
Seunghyun wishes it were that simple, the key to their continued survival.  
  
His arousal cresting and rippling through him takes Seunghyun by surprise, so lost is he in the spectacle before him that is _Daesung_. He is seduced by the wet sounds of Daesung slurping at feverish skin, by the sinful-smooth slide of his tongue along the underside of his cock with every bob of his head over Seunghyun's lap. Daesung gives him so much more than just sensation-- he gives him sights, sounds, smells. The heady blend of their combined arousal hangs thick in the air between them; Seunghyun cannot see Daesung's need, but he is keenly aware of it all the same.  
  
Suddenly, Seunghyun sits up and fists his hand in Daesung's hair, pulling with a severe grip. He does not want to come yet. Not now, not like this. He wants more than this.  
  
He always wants more.  
  
Daesung stills. Slowly, as if it pains him, he draws back and off of Seunghyun. As Seunghyun's cock slips from his mouth the very edges of his lips graze the tip, capturing a fresh bead of pre-come; Seunghyun is on the brink of losing it already at the way he smacks his lips and blinks up at him almost innocently, a question burning in his eyes.  
  
Innocent? There is nothing innocent about those lips of his, a little swollen already and shiny with semen.  
  
"I want to come inside," Seunghyun blurts out.  
  
"You can," Daesung sighs. His hot breath streams over him as he speaks and Seunghyun aches to be in him. "In my _mouth_."  
  
"You know what I mean," Seunghyun grouses. His hand in Daesung's hair leaves, smoothing down the side of his face until it cradles his jaw. Daesung takes this as his cue to continue, going down and opening up around him again, lips forming a tight seal and sucking once, long and mercilessly _hard_.  
  
"No," he grunts, digging in with nails that are short but sharp until Daesung whines in protest.  
  
"What?" Daesung huffs, not bothering to hide his irritation.  
  
"I'm going to come if you keep this up," Seunghyun tells him.  
  
Daesung gapes at him. "I'd be offended if you didn't. Now just let me--"  
  
"I told you--"  
  
"Can't I just have this? Please?" Daesung says, peering up at him with doleful eyes. He tries a gentle approach: a chaste kiss to the head of his cock. It's almost sweet, just the softest touch of lips to his heated skin. His dick twitches-- fucking _twitches_ \-- under his affection, clearly wanting more. Seunghyun feels betrayed.  
  
Only Daesung has ever had such a profound effect on him.  
  
But he has other plans for him now, so he flicks Daesung right on the tip of his nose, and just like that, the other man's seductive spell over him shatters. Daesung _squeals_ and shrinks away, unable to back out of the cradle of Seunghyun's legs fast enough.  
  
"You're so selfish," Daesung complains, eyes wet from the stinging pain, tail bristling.  
  
"Selfish?" Seunghyun rolls onto his knees and crawls at him on all fours. " _Selfish_ would be sitting back and letting you blow me without returning the favor. What I'm about to do will be good for you too, promise."  
  
Daesung heaves a put-upon sigh but settles obediently onto his back for him, abandoning his blowjob plans at last as he reclines on a bed of grass that is unseasonably green and soft. Together they make quick work of his pants and underwear, and less than a minute later Seunghyun is fucking into Daesung not with his cock-- though that is in his plans-- but with long, wet, searching fingers.  
  
"Fucking hell, you're tight," Seunghyun gasps, arm working as he opens up his mate with measured strokes.  
  
"That's good, right?" Daesung laughs, the sound a little strained. "You wouldn't want me loose, would you?"  
  
"Maybe I would," Seunghyun bites back saucily. "Loose and sloppy after hours on my cock."  
  
Daesung laughs again, but this time it's broken by a full body shiver as Seunghyun's skillful fingers strike him inside just right.  
  
" _Oh_ ," Daesung moans, hips jerking suddenly. "That's-- _that's it_ \--"  
  
"I know," Seunghyun says, and goes for it again with renewed purpose.  
  
It takes a few tries, but when he finds it he knows-- he always does. The reaction it draws from Daesung is impossible to conceal, impossible to _miss_.  
  
His hips leap off the ground as if burned, cock jabbing at the air with a violent abandon that he rarely displays. It might startle Seunghyun if he was not expecting it, the way Daesung comes alive with lust under his experienced hands. The first few times he had stumbled upon this spot inside Daesung, hidden away in his body like buried treasure, he feared he had hurt him.  
  
These days he knows better. These days he knows to dig for it, and even better, he knows _where_.  
  
Because Daesung _loves_ to be touched here, Seunghyun has since learned. It is just one of a few reasons he is so quick to let Seunghyun top him, to allow Seunghyun deep inside him with as much force and frequency as he likes. Sometimes, like now, Seunghyun finds it easily; other times it takes a good pounding. Whatever the case, with a little time, a good angle, and a touch of luck...  
  
Daesung cants his hips up with a high, needy, _breathless_ sound that's like a bullet straight to Seunghyun's cock. His arousal explodes at the sights and sounds of his mate lost to sensation, a slave to ecstasy when Seunghyun plays his body just right. Triggering that special place inside him never fails to make Daesung squirm in undivided pleasure, and never does Seunghyun find him more stunning.  
  
_Never_.  
  
It drives Daesung _wild_ , and it turns Seunghyun's blood to molten metal in his veins. He would burn up from the inside, his skin and bones falling to ashes, if he did not have this man to pour his passion into.  
  
_Fucking hell_ \-- Seunghyun thinks, clinging tooth and claw to the tattered threads of his control. He isn't going to last if they keep this up. He isn't going to last at all.  
  
"There?" he pants, pulsing between the legs, his sex straining toward the man under him, desperate to feel him, his heat and pressure.  
  
"Yes, _there!_ " Daesung cries, thrashing on the ends of his fingers.  
  
"Tell me when I hit it, tell me every time," Seunghyun rasps, arousal turning his normally polished voice to gravel in his throat. "So I can do it again and-- and again, _fuck_ , _Daesung_."  
  
"Isn't it obvious?" Daesung nearly sobs. Then he _moans_ , a long, guttural sound, and his tail under him sweeps the ground once, reflexively. Seunghyun's eyes roll back. Fuck all this, Daesung's voice alone is better than sex.  
  
Well. Almost better than sex.  
  
Wholly absorbed in this thought, Seunghyun nearly misses when Daesung goes suddenly, disturbingly still under him-- not in the way Seunghyun might expect but in a way that signals _danger_. A dubious look crosses his face as he stares, fixated, at something over and behind Seunghyun.  
  
Alarm ripples through him.  
  
"What? What is it?" Is something there? Some _one?_ Every muscle in Seunghyun's body tenses in preparation for a fight, pulse spiking for an entirely new reason. His head spins with the intensity of the shift in direction.  
  
Daesung's expression softens into a nervous smile. "There's, um." He pauses to catch his breath. "There's a fox. Up in the tree, a gray fox." Of course-- the only species of fox that can climb trees.  
  
Seunghyun _snarls_ , fury for one fleeting moment getting the better of him even as the fight instinct drains right out of him. _There is no threat_ , he tells his racing heart.  
  
"Don't _do_ that," he cries, slowly recovering.  
  
"Do what?"  
  
"That _thing_ where you freeze up like-- like you're in peril. I was half a second away from turning the fuck around and tearing into whatever-- or, shit, _who_ ever-- it was you were staring at." A moment longer and their little voyeuristic fox friend would be in shreds, scraps of skin and soft fox fur littering the ground around them.  
  
"Sorry," Daesung murmurs. He squirms a bit, and Seunghyun remembers that he still has fingers inside him. "It's-- it's watching us though."  
  
"So? Ignore it." His fingers flex and move inside Daesung, stretching him open again, picking up where they left off--  
  
"But its beady little eyes--"  
  
" _Ignore it_ ," Seunghyun growls, this time punctuating it with a thrust that is extra hard. He knows he hit his target when Daesung convulses, a sharp gasp tearing its way out of him. This keeps him quiet, focused again on Seunghyun for a few blessed moments.  
  
"But it's... It's looking right at us. Right at _me_ , I think," he says as soon as he regains his breath, one eye peeking open.  
  
"Let it look," is Seunghyun's curt reply as he casually adds another finger. Daesung doesn't seem to notice.  
  
"It's weird."  
  
"What's weird?"  
  
"What if it, I don't know, _likes_ what it sees--"  
  
"Forget about the damn fox, Daesung! Focus on _this_ ," Seunghyun shouts, attacking his prostate again without mercy in a final, desperate plea to reclaim his attention. He loves this man with all his heart but damnit, they're in the middle of something important! Their audience can wait!  
  
" _Ah, fuck_ \-- Seunghyun!" Daesung's body heaves, hips and thighs and everything in between rising again to meet him.  
  
To Seunghyun it is as good an invitation as any.  
  
He does not wrap lips around Daesung as Daesung had done, but rather licks his way up and down his length, peppering it with kisses. Sucking cock while giving a good fingerfucking is a challenge Seunghyun is not up for today. The motion of his mate's hips is vigorous and strong, dangerously so, and never more than when he gets him like this.  
  
And so it goes, Seunghyun laving at Daesung hungrily, tongue gliding down the base of his cock and continuing over his balls, wanting to taste all of him. His fingers arrive at that place inside him again; Daesung's thighs clamp hard around his head as he surges under him with a whimper.  
  
He is simultaneously thirsty for and drunk on this man, the flavor of his skin, the smell of his sex, the softness of his sighs.  
  
...until something catches on his tongue.  
  
Seunghyun disentangles himself from the cage of Daesung's legs, bolts upright, and spits out a wiry hair.  
  
"Ugh," he says, making a face. Daesung's shoulders shake in silent laughter. Seunghyun shoots him a dirty look.  
  
"You think this is funny, huh?"  
  
"It is a little. Sorry." Chest still heaving, Daesung's face turns sly like the fox that had interrupted them only minutes before. "Or am I?"  
  
Seunghyun scowls down at him without a word.  
  
"What, can't handle a tiny hair? Happens to me all the time."  
  
Seunghyun makes a show of scraping at his tongue. "See if I ever put my tongue down here again."  
  
"Oh come on," Daesung whines. He rolls his hips, offering them up again; Seunghyun cannot help the way his eyes are drawn to his cock, flushed red with blood and as hard as hard gets and still soaked with his spit. "What do you want me to do about it?"  
  
"Maybe _I'll_ do something about it," Seunghyun says, and that's all the warning Daesung gets before he threads his fingers through the hair under his hand and pulls-- though lightly.  
  
Daesung twitches, eyeing him with doubt. "Don't even think about it. Don't you dare."  
  
Grinning wickedly like the big bad wolf he prides himself on being, Seunghyun gives a sharp tug.  
  
" _Ow_ ," Daesung hisses, slapping at Seunghyun's knuckles. "Stop it, that hurts!"  
  
Seunghyun releases him, hand stinging, but the pain cannot stop the lopsided grin that plays across his lips as he looks down at Daesung fondly.  
  
Daesung sinks back to the grass, peering up at him through his lashes like he expects him to do it again. "Okay? Satisfied now?"  
  
Seunghyun shrugs. "I really don't even mind," he admits. He's a wolf, wild and free; he has had worse things in his mouth than stray hairs. "Maybe I just wanted an excuse to pull your hair."  
  
"Since when do you need an excuse to do anything," Daesung grumbles. Seunghyun pinches him on the thigh for that.  
  
"Anyway," Daesung yelps, "if you're going to pull my hair, maybe don't do it down there? Plenty up here." He pats the shaggy mop of hair atop his head.  
  
"But that's no fun."  
  
"Oh? Then why do you do it _all the fucking time_."  
  
Seunghyun opens his mouth to reply-- then realizes belatedly that he doesn't know. He doesn't have the answer to that. Why _does_ it give him such a thrill to pull on Daesung's hair? But then, does it really matter? He is a wolf, and wolves do as they like. Why should life be any more complicated than that?  
  
"It's gone."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"The fox," Daesung says. "It's gone. It ran off."  
  
"Good riddance," Seunghyun says, moving into position. Slowly, stealthily, while Daesung is distracted.  
  
"Wonder when it left," Daesung says, lost in thought.  
  
Seunghyun grins down at him and waggles his brows, aiming for ridiculous-- as ridiculous as he can manage. He wants Daesung's eyes on his face while he does this. "Probably off to finds its little partner, if you know what I mean."  
  
"Ugh," Daesung groans, head rolling in the grass. Bits and pieces of it come up with him, caught in his sweat-matted hair. "That's so-- ugh."  
  
"Does it really bother you?"  
  
"It does! I mean, what if-- **_fuck!_** "  
  
Seunghyun grins down at Daesung wickedly, biting back a groan. "...You were saying?"  
  
Daesung forces out a heavy breath, eyes squeezed shut. "You could have warned me."  
  
"Now why would I do that?" Seunghyun rolls his hips, and where he is buried in the other's tight heat he aches with the overwhelming need to move, move, _move_. "This was what I," he pushes in, "had planned," pulls out, gasping, "all along."  
  
Daesung glares up at him, rocked by his thrusts. "You play dirty, Seunghyun."  
  
Seunghyn meets his stare head-on and hoists a leg over his shoulder, pressing in closer. He gives an experimental thrust, everything impossibly tighter now. With a weak sound, Daesung twists away, eyes falling shut.  
  
There. No more glaring.  
  
"Anyway, about that damn fox," Seunghyun says. "Stop worrying about it. Who cares what the animals around here think of us? We're promoting life," he states, beginning a steady, relaxed rhythm that tells nothing of his earlier urgency. Now that he is snugly slotted inside Daesung, his favorite place to be, he actually feels _calmer_.  
  
"Life?" Daesung laughs. "What if it was, _uh_ \--" he grunts as Seunghyun ruts into him with force, grabs at the grass for purchase, "--a _male_ fox, and its so-called partner is male too? Like us? What then, Seunghyun? No-- _ah_ \-- no new life to be had there."  
  
"Then we're promoting _a good time_ ," Seunghyun says proudly. He dips down and captures Daesung's lips in a kiss that is slippery and hurried, perfectly inelegant. Perfectly them.  
  
Then, drawing back just enough that their lips are only brushing, he says, "Why are you so fixated on this, anyway? They're just animals."  
  
"I don't know." Daesung returns his kiss with equal fervor, reaching up for Seunghyun just as he is reaching down. "I don't know."  
  
As they connect, a thought strikes Seunghyun. "Am I boring you? Do I need to step it up a notch? Is that what you're trying to tell me?"  
  
"No!" Daesung laughs, taken aback, "That's not it at all. In fact, I think this is a nice change of pace for us."  
  
Seunghyun is unconvinced-- actions speak louder than words, after all, and if he is reading Daesung's body right, it's telling him it wants _more_ , wants it _faster_ and _harder_. This man he calls his mate could use a hearty, healthy fucking right where they lie, here for all the woodland creatures to see, privacy be damned.  
  
And that is just what Seunghyun wants to give him.  
  
Sweat drips into his eyes, the air around them as stagnant as when they began, approaching stifling... but it will take more than a little still air to stop them now. They have an audience to inspire.  
  
So much for conserving energy.  
  
"I don't believe you. Now turn over," Seunghyun says, slipping free and slapping at Daesung's ass, encouraging him to move, "and we'll show them what it means to fuck like animals."

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

 

 

The seasons turn, the summer heat surrendering to the approaching autumn. The air takes on a crisp, invigorating quality, and with the chill comes the changing of the leaves. Daesung loves this season more than all the rest, admires how autumn brings them a landscape awash with warm tones, hues of vibrant reds and yellows and every shade between.  
  
Their world is preparing to go dormant for the winter, but it does not descend quietly into it. No, it goes out in a blaze of glory, a spectacle as dazzling as if the treetops were engulfed in a sea of flames as far as the eye can see-- of course, without all the death and destruction that would follow such an event.  
  
Daesung is gazing up at the sky, eyes locked on a flock of geese overhead, their annual migration taking them somewhere far south of here. The shape of their flight formation is like an arrowhead announcing the direction of their journey. It is always a curious sight.  
  
He has never had the privilege of dining on goose before; the large birds are scarcely seen in these lands, preferring to swell near large bodies of water that his pack just does not have. Their noisy honking as they pass is impossible to ignore. Daesung could not look away if he tried.  
  
And it is for this reason that Daesung forgets to watch where he's going as he walks. The toe of his shoe catches on a thick tree root, sending him plunging to the forest floor.  
  
"Wha--!"  
  
Fortunately, his ungainly tumble takes him into an impressive pile of leaves, deep and wide, as if the tree that tripped him had prepared for him a soft landing. It breaks his falls and sends an eruption of dead leaves into the air.  
  
From somewhere up ahead his packmates burst into raucous laughter. And Daesung lets them, too busy fighting his way out of his bed of decaying plant matter. To his keen sense of smell it reeks, the odor of rancid leaves in his hair and all around him so pungent and foul it makes his stomach churn.  
  
Spoiled meat he can handle; it's vegetation he cannot tolerate.  
  
When he finally surfaces, he gasps, sucking down the fresh, clean air rather dramatically, he knows. The leaves that hang from Daesung's hair blind him enough that when a hand appears before him he assumes it's Seunghyun's. He reaches for it.  
  
"Okay down there?" a voice says. A voice he wasn't expecting. "Looks like you could use some help."  
  
Not Seunghyun. _Seungri_.  
  
Daesung jerks his hand away just before they connect and climbs to his feet without help, wiping bits of dead leaves from his palms to avoid looking at the other wolf. A bark of laughter-- familiar and welcome this time-- tells him of Seunghyun's approach. He pretends not to see the look of hurt that flashes across Seungri's face as turns away.  
  
But he did see it, and now he feels as rotten as the pile of leaves he has just escaped.  
  
"Clumsy," Seunghyun says with his usual teasing affection. A guiding hand settles on the small of Daesung's back. "Always walking around with your head in the clouds."  
  
Daesung doesn't miss Seungri wandering away to rejoin the others, hands shoved in his pockets.  
  
"It's those damn geese, always making a racket as they fly by. Just seeing them makes me hungry," he whines at Seunghyun. "Think we'll ever get to try goose?"  
  
"If you can find a way to bring one down out of the sky," Seunghyun replies smoothly.  
  
Daesung sighs. "And also this _tree_ with all its--" he kicks at the root that had tripped him, "--its _roots_." He is careful to keep the kick light and restrained; Daesung has lived long enough to know by now that in a clash between root and foot, foot would surely lose.  
  
"What, did it reach out and grab you?" Seunghyun gasps, eyes wide in mock surprise. "Oh no. As if humans and wolves weren't bad enough, now nature itself is out to get us. The trees are alive!"  
  
Daesung levels him with a flat look. "The trees _are_ alive, Seunghyun."  
  
"You know what I meant," Seunghyun says, smiling. "Just watch where you're going, okay? Eyes ahead, not above."  
  
"You talk like I make a habit of going around and tripping over things."  
  
"Daesung," Seunghyun says with a deliberate slowness. "I have seen you trip over nothing but your own big feet. More than once. Many times, in fact."  
  
Burying his face in the collar of Seunghyun's shirt, Daesung mewls, "Stop picking on me."  
  
Because what he says is true, and Daesung is admittedly a little sensitive about it. Those are not among his finest moments, and they both know it.  
  
"But it's so much fun," Seunghyun croons, nuzzling into the side of his neck. The hand on Daesung's back drifts south until it skims the base of his tail. "...and you're so easily caught unaware. Sure you're really a wolf?" He grabs his tail and pulls.  
  
Daesung shoves him away, tail smarting for only a moment. "I think you've got your answer right there!"  
  
But, oops, there are times Daesung forgets his own strength, times like now. With the force of his unexpected shove, Seunghyun's feet slip out from under him. He pitches over backward with a rare look of panic, one arm clutching Daesung tenaciously to him--  
  
\--and right into the same bed of leaves Daesung has just climbed out of.  
  
There is really nothing Daesung can do about it. With a surprised cry, he goes down with him.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
In their world there exist a few hard truths, timeless lessons invulnerable to change. Day in and day out these truths continuously shape the course of their lives, like a sculptor squeezing and pulling daily at lumps of wet clay. They live and they learn-- and then use what they learn to carry on living.  
  
But they must remain malleable if they wish to survive. A wolf in the wild cannot afford to stagnate; his existence is one of constant learning-- of opening himself to new experiences and adapting to unique circumstances. If he pauses to rest for too long, forgetting the harsh ways of the world, he risks drying out, cracking like sheets of clay exposed to the summer sun. It would signal the beginning of the end.  
  
Good thing Daesung is an avid learner. Today their world has prepared for them another lesson.  
  
Nature's design dictates that the weak perish while the strong survive. Two come to blows, and the victor stands, triumphant, while the loser limps away to lick his wounds. He might try again another day, should he live to see it.  
  
But sometimes there are no winners. Sometimes, when two rivals meet in battle, both lose.  
  
"Look, look!" Youngbae says excitedly just as they crest a hill. Daesung looks, but before any of them can reply Youngbae takes off down the hill, bushy tail flying high behind him, his mad dash flinging clumps of dirt into the air.  
  
It takes him a moment, but Daesung soon sees it, the cause for Youngbae's haste. Two animals struggling against each other at the base of the hill. He squints. Two deer-- two _bucks_ , healthy and strong-- locked in battle, their antlers hopelessly tangled.  
  
They cannot free themselves. Cannot separate. And most importantly, cannot _run_.  
  
The bucks catch sigh of Youngbae's rapid approach, and soon after that the rest of the pack behind him. Their efforts to part double. They spin in circles, frantic, straining away from each other as their cloven hooves carve deep divots in the dirt.  
  
But it's no good. The growth of bone atop their heads have them trapped, and no amount of twisting, turning, or tugging each other this way or that is enough to disentangle them. They snort in terror as Daesung and the pack come to a halt mere yards away, dark eyes wide with fear.  
  
Their antlers, dangerous weapons when wielded properly, have doomed them.  
  
Certainly, this means easy pickings for them. But Daesung does not have to feel good about it. For a meal to be served up like this, as if on a platter, is strange indeed. Nature is never so generous. It seems too good to be true.  
  
A delighted laugh from Seungri breaks him from his quiet reflection. "I've actually never seen this before. I know it happens, but... wow."  
  
"Poor bastards." That's Seunghyun.  
  
"Lucky us," Youngbae says, grinning. He looks a moment away from throwing himself at the distressed animals, looks like he might try to polish one off all by himself.  
  
Lucky? That much, at least, is true. Opportunities like this are exceedingly rare. It may not seem fair to Daesung, but so what? That's life. They need to eat too.  
  
The deer dance away from them as best they can-- that is to say, not well at all, each attempting to go a different direction, thwarted every time. Daesung knows one thing: today one of them is going to die.  
  
"Let's take them both," Seungri says, ready to dig in and be done with it.  
  
Jiyong stops him. "We don't need both," he says, "We'll just take one. Let the other go."  
  
"Let one _go?_ " Seungri stares at him, aghast. "But how often do you get a chance like this?"  
  
"One is enough," their leader says sternly.  
  
"But--"  
  
" _We don't need both_ ," he says again, raising his voice as the alpha in him claws to the surface for one fearsome moment. "We're not taking more than we need. End of discussion."  
  
Seungri pouts and seems to droop all over-- head, shoulders, and tail bowing defeat, even as he tries one last time. "Is it really enough though? We could probably... I don't know..."  
  
Seunghyun steps in and takes him by the shoulder, shaking him playfully. "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach, little one." Seungri makes a face at the term of endearment. "There's no way you're eating an entire deer by yourself!"  
  
"You don't know that," Seungri counters. His hand flies to his stomach and pats it proudly. "I bet I could."  
  
Seunghyun laughs, and Youngbae joins in. Even Jiyong is grinning, and soon Daesung is too. With all eyes on their youngest member, they are all smiles.  
  
It's nice, Daesung thinks, when they all get along. He could get used to this.  
  
"Don't laugh!" Seungri shouts, "I could if you'd just let me try!"  
  
"Maybe, but you would hate yourself afterward," Jiyong says with a hopelessly fond smile. He ruffles Seungri's hair affectionately, and under the positive attention Seungri's pout soon morphs into a shy smile of his own. Tentative, but there all the same.  
  
Daesung is glad to see it.  
  
Not wasting any more time, they untangle the bucks, taking them by the antlers and manipulating their heads-- up, down, first to the left, then to the right-- until the tines slip free of each other, their tapered ends locking them together no more. Youngbae and Seungri take charge of one buck; Seunghyun and Daesung take the other. Jiyong oversees the four of them, studying the captive animals with a shrewd eye.  
  
"Youngbae. Seungri." Jiyong waves them away. "Let that one go."  
  
Seungri hesitates.  
  
" _Seungri_ ," Youngbae growls, and the boy's hands open instantly. In a flash the buck whirls away and launches into the woods, the white flag of its tail raised in warning all the way until it disappears from sight beyond the treeline.  
  
"So this is our keeper?" Seunghyun asks Jiyong, sizing up the buck in his and Daesung's grasp.  
  
"That's the one."  
  
Seunghyun catches Daesung's eye. Blood has yet to be spilled here, but already his expression is _wild_.  
  
"These things can be deadly weapons," he says, grip on the deer's antlers tightening as he lugs the creature around. He indicates that Daesung should let go, and unlike Seungri, Daesung does so without needing to be told a second time.  
  
_Step back_ , he does not say, but Daesung does anyway because he knows that look in his mate's eyes. He knows what kind of violence follows.  
  
Seunghyun continues, "But they're also very convenient tools if used just right... Like so."  
  
It happens so fast Daesung almost misses it-- in one quick, powerful motion, the other wolf uses his grip on the antlers to twist the animal's head _hard_.  
  
Daesung is no stranger to violence, but still he cringes at the sound of bone separating-- a series of snaps, crackles, and pops as vertebrae grind together in a way they were never meant to. The deer is dead in an instant, legs giving out under it as it drops like a stone, the life gone out of it before it has hit the ground.  
  
"Look at that, a clean kill," Seunghyun says, not above bragging as he straightens up and wipes his hands over a job well done.  
  
"We're wolves, Seunghyun. We don't care about clean kills," Jiyong says.  
  
"Yeah, well." Seunghyun stares at the body on the ground like he can't wait to sink his teeth into it. "Dinner, anyone?"  
  
They need no more urging than that.  
  
This is a great time of year for them, in the late autumn when the days are shorter and cooler. On the verge of winter their main prey are more active than ever, caught up in the annual breeding season: the rut. Every day bucks travel miles in pursuit of does... and they seem to lose their minds in the process.

They cross open fields boldly, revealing themselves to predators. They lock horns with rival bucks for the right to breed, risking injury or death. They crash through the woods with a commotion, announcing their presence to the world and putting themselves in harm's way without knowing or caring. Reckless and daring, they are at the mercy of nature as it drives them toward that one, all-consuming biological imperative: reproduction.  
  
Daesung does not envy the poor creatures for it. He cannot imagine being at the mercy of his own body like that. Heats and ruts are for the animals, not for him or his kind.  
  
"God, I love this time of year," Seunghyun moans after they've finished, clutching at his full stomach like it pains him. Winter may be lean, but in the months leading up to it their pack thrives.  
  
Daesung swallows down a meaty mouthful and grins at him, blood thick and sticky across his lips. "Me too," he says, and oh does he mean it with all his heart.  
  
"Feast or famine, huh? Today we feast," Jiyong says appreciatively.  
  
"Feel like I could sleep for days," Seungri moans, sounding troubled. "I'm _stuffed_. I can't move."  
  
"Oh?" Youngbae perks up. "But what was that you said about eating an entire deer all by yourself? Or did I hear that wrong?"  
  
Seungri groans miserably and collapses into the grass, hands clasped over his tender stomach. "Don't. Please. Just thinking about it makes me want to hurl."  
  
"That bad? Jeez."  
  
"I can't eat another bite," Seungri says pitifully, and Daesung actually almost pities him... but not quite.  
  
"A nap sounds amazing right now," he contributes, feeling a little sleepy himself, a frequent side effect of a full belly.  
  
Seunghyun scrubs a bloody hand through his hair and growls, "A nap? Fuck that. When we get back I'm gonna crawl under the blankets and sleep for a _month_. Maybe two. Maybe until the end of winter."  
  
From his place on the ground Seungri mutters, "So you're gonna, what, hibernate?"  
  
"Yes," Seunghyun says shortly. "That is exactly what I'm going to do."  
  
"If only," Jiyong sighs, suddenly wistful. "Hibernation sounds lovely."  
  
"Can I join you?" Daesung says as he sidles up to Seunghyun, wiping at the gore glazing his chin.  
  
"You'd better." Seunghyun grabs him by the collar of his shirt and hauls him in until their mouths collide in a messy meeting of lips, their tongues making short work of what blood remains from their meal. For the two of them it's business as usual.  
  
"Speaking of hibernation-- that's a bear thing, right? Are there even bears around here? I haven't seen any yet," Seungri ponders.  
  
Jiyong sits back on his hands. "We've got a few black bears in the area. Not many though." At Seungri's nervous face Jiyong laughs, "Nothing to worry about, Seungri, they're more afraid of you than you are of them. And you definitely won't see them out and about in the winter." He turns his face to the sky and scents the air, eyes going a bit distant. "Which will be here soon, I think. Might be a cold one this time around. Colder than usual."  
  
"So we'd better fatten up, right?" Youngbae says. "This is as good a time as any to do it. Plenty of deer--"  
  
Suddenly, Seunghyun pipes up, "What if we were part deer instead of wolf? Think we'd have antlers?" Daesung yelps as he drops low and headbutts him, catching him sharply right over the ribs.  
  
"Ow!" he laughs, startled. "What was that for?  
  
Seunghyun shrugs and does it again-- and moments later, again-- knocking into him repeatedly until at last Daesung lurches to his feet to escape the assault.  
  
Predictably, Seunghyun follows, gathering long legs under him and struggling to his feet like a fawn. Daesung gets it, he does. His full belly slows him down. It slows all of them down.  
  
But its effect is only temporary, and it only slows Seunghyun down for the time it takes him to climb to his feet. Bent at the waist with chin tucked to his chest, like a buck herding a doe, he charges at Daesung.  
  
And that is how Daesung ends up chased around the clearing, his own laughter stealing the air from his lungs until he can barely breathe through it all, much less keep running.  
  
"Stop it! Seunghyun!" Daesung cries when the other wolf plows into his side again, "Your head is hard! It hurts!"  
  
Seunghyun lifts his hard head just long enough to say, "Which head?" The others laugh, and Daesung would too-- if only he was not currently under attack by his dear, sweet, _lunatic_ of a mate.  
  
Though it all, he catches Jiyong, Youngbae, and even Seungri watching them with wide, happy smiles. And while Daesung does not especially _enjoy_ being treated like prey, that his and Seunghyun's antics can bring their packmates such childlike joy is a satisfaction all its own. He is glad he can give them this, if nothing else.  
  
Because whatever happens in the years to come-- he hopes they have years ahead of them, anyway-- these are the moments Daesung wants to remember.  
  
"You two," Youngbae says warmly, following up with a gentle shake of his head. Beside him Jiyong seems equally content, almost sedated now, his food settling. He tips over slowly until gravity carries him down onto a startled Seungri. And it is there he rests, perfectly at peace.  
  
They spend the rest of the afternoon like this-- five young men, young _wolves_ , still boys at heart, testing their strength and stamina through play until the sun kisses the horizon. Shadows grow long around them as they gather up what's left of their catch to lug it home. Over the next few days they will pick its carcass clean, leaving not enough for even the crows to make a meal of.  
  
After all, to utilize all they are given is what enables them to prosper in a world where, for predators, nothing is freely given and second chances are not promised. Waste not, want not.  
  
Then they return home. They make the short trek back with hunger quelled and spirits high, eyes fixed on the distant horizon, looking ahead. Always ahead.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
Seunghyun wakes in the night with a pressing need.  
  
That is, with a need that is _pressing_ \-- right into the soft globes of Daesung's ass. Still half-asleep, he rolls his hips, testing, and stifles a groan at the sparks of pleasure that result.  
  
He stills, listening intently to Daesung's breathing: slow, rhythmic, relaxed. Still sleeping, then.  
  
Seunghyun's lips curl in a devilish grin. _Perfect_.  
  
He has a plan, one he has waited too long for. Daesung is a heavy sleeper, yet somehow he always seems to wake before Seunghyun can get very far...  
  
Tonight is the night.  
  
Seunghyun sucks his fingers into his own mouth to wet them. Then, slow and deliberate, so as not to wake his sleeping bedmate, he slips them down Daesung's back and between his cheeks until the pads of his index and middle fingers find his hole, warm and velvety soft. It quivers under his touch, the motion so slight Seunghyun almost doesn't feel it.  
  
He freezes, listening again to the other's breathing.  
  
Still out.  
  
Seunghyun lets out a breath he hadn't meant to hold, a puff of warm air over Daesung's bare back.  
  
And so for a time he continues like that. Lax with sleep, Daesung's body takes his fingers like it's been waiting for them, first one, then two, then _three_ , Seunghyun stretching him open as slowly as he can bear without disturbing him. The thumping of his heart as it sends blood to his cock is like a fist beating at the cage of his ribs, fighting to be free. He draws away a fraction, their skin not touching, just in case Daesung feels it against his back and wakes.  
  
At least he'll be ready for action when the moment is right.  
  
Seunghyun grinds his teeth to quell his impatience, nearly biting his tongue in the process. His body is more than ready. He just needs to make sure Daesung's is as well; the last thing he wants to do is hurt him in his haste.  
  
No, what he _wants_ is for Daesung to wake up on his cock, so limp and comfortable around him that he does not wake when Seunghyun nudges into him. And when he does wake, he will be halfway there already and wondering how he got there.  
  
Only Seunghyun will know. Only he will remember how Daesung was lost to dreams while he played his body until, under his skilled hands, it _sang_ with desire. The memory will live on in him and no one else, not even Daesung himself.  
  
Seunghyun holds him in place with the lightest touch he can manage. With his other hand he parts the other's wolf's cheeks and nestles his cock between and Daesung is still sleeping and--  
  
_Oh god_ , he thinks, breath shuddering out of him, _this is it_. His fantasy finally come to fruition.  
  
It is easier than he ever imagined, easier than he could have _dreamed_ , Daesung's heat receiving him like-- Seunghyun chokes, his ability to think taking to the air like doves flushed from their perches-- and it takes nothing, Daesung's body offering up so little resistance to Seunghyun's cock, like it was molded specifically for him. Like it remembers his shape and has awaited his return.  
  
Seunghyun's heart _roars_ in his chest, punching his sternum so hard it's fucking _painful_ , his own pulse in his ears like thunder in the vacuum of night.  
  
And it's so... so...  
  
He could keep going, could fool himself a little longer, but Seunghyun has never been keen on playing pretend. He wants the real deal, an offering as honest as the bond between them, never anything else.  
  
The fantasy was fun while it lasted.  
  
So against the shell of Daesung's ear he whispers, "You can drop the act. I know you're awake."  
  
Daesung gasps and tenses up, his faked sleep state falling away.  
  
"Did you know all along?"  
  
"Yes." Seunghyun drags Daesung in against him, letting him feel the drumming of his heart. "But it was nice of you to let me pretend for awhile."  
  
"Mmm," Daesung hums, stretching under Seunghyun's hands in a satisfied way. Seunghyun groans at the way it makes his ass tighten around him, his hole clamping down on his aching cock perfectly. "It wasn't all fake. I _was_ asleep at first."  
  
"It was the fingers, wasn't it."  
  
"Not the first one but... Yep." He makes a soft sound as Seunghyun starts to move behind him. "Sorry. Better luck next time."  
  
Seunghyun purses his lips. "One of these days I'm gonna get in there while you're sleeping," he purrs, topping off the statement with just a hint of teeth to the skin of Daesung's neck. The urge to bite him is tempting. "You won't even know it. Then you'll wake up with me inside you, hitting you just right, right where you like it, and you'll be so..."  
  
"I--" Daesung gasps, the sound so wispy and thin Seunghyun almost doesn't catch it. "I want that as much as-- as much as you do, _oh_." He trembles while Seunghyun fucks him in a deliberately laid-back fashion, torturously slow, taking his time for a change.  
  
"Do you?"  
  
"Yes. But I can't-- _fuck_ ," his hand clenches where he has reached back and grabbed Seunghyun by the arm, nails digging in. "I can't control when I wake up."  
  
"Maybe," Seunghyun pants, "Maybe you'll wake up at the end, just as you're coming. What will you do then, I wonder?"  
  
"I might f-- freak out," Daesung says, struggling to push the words out the more Seunghyun pushes into him. "You know me."  
  
"You won't freak out. You'll be fine. You'll see," Seunghyun says, sure that one day his fantasy will be realized. Because if there is one thing the years have taught him, it is that he and Daesung are two beings created solely for each other. Seunghyun will never find a more exact fit. He is willing to stake his life on it. This man who calls himself _Daesung_ , this remarkable wolf who Seunghyun called into his life quite by accident is his perfect match. Physically, emotionally, sexually, spiritually-- none can compare.  
  
Whatever the reason for it, joined with the other wolf like this, Seunghyun feels whole. How or why it happened does not matter. What does matter is that Daesung completes him, his presence filling a void Seunghyun didn't even know he had until their paths crossed.  
  
He's sure he does not deserve even half of what Daesung gives him, which is all of himself.  
  
"Yeah," Daesung breathes, and Seunghyun can hear the smile coloring his words as he says, "Yeah, you're probably right."  
  
He snakes a hand down and curves it under Daesung's thigh, grabbing at the inside where his skin always seems a little softer. He lifts his leg up and back, hooking it over his own hip, opening him up that much more, and tucks him in flush against himself. Sealed together, back to front, ass to groin, as deep in Daesung as he can be, Seunghyun sets out to see what range of shiver-inducing sounds he can draw out of his lover before this ends.  
  
Which happens to be not long at all.  
  
Seunghyun rocks into the other man with a burst of energy, lancing his willing body with a few well-timed, well-placed thrusts, and that's it for Daesung. He bucks and whines, a high, breathy, _elated_ cry as he comes, strings of semen spurting and making a mess of everything-- it lands on his belly, on the tangle of blankets under him, and last of all, on Seunghyun's fingers where they had been inching closer to his untouched cock, a breath away from taking him in hand and dragging it out of him.  
  
But hey, _fucking_ it out of him works too.  
  
As for Seunghyun himself, he has teetered on the edge for too long already. As Daesung goes over now, plunging down the precipice, he pulls Seunghyun forcibly with him-- as always seems to be the case with the two of them. Where one goes the other inevitably follows, their shared momentum carrying them farther than they ever really mean to go. Seunghyun is helpless to stop it even if he wanted to.  
  
But then, he is helpless in a lot of ways when it comes to Daesung.  


 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
Not all is well in their world, they soon learn. This becomes obvious in a sudden way, when on an otherwise serene day they cross paths with a lone coyote.  
  
There is nothing overtly unusual about a coyote traveling solo, separated from its pack. Unlike wolves, they spend much of their lives alone, only convening with others of their kind from time to time.  
  
But this world has its ways of warning them when there is danger. Seunghyun has always thought animals to be rather predictable by nature. Uncommon behavior from their furred, scaled, or feathered neighbors is always cause for concern, a reason to sit up and take notice.  
  
And this one's behavior is... strange.  
  
They are on their way to the river to gather water again-- a routine, mundane task-- when the sickly-looking coyote wobbles across their path. Its pale eyes roll toward them and it growls endlessly, seeming agitated for no discernible reason.  
  
"What is it doing?" Seungri squints at the creature with open curiosity. He does not get an answer, the rest of them observing with a kind of nervous quiet.  
  
He starts toward it.  
  
" _No!_ "  
  
Jiyong and Youngbae both throw an arm across his chest, stopping him where he stands. Seunghyun, likewise, puts an arm in front of Daesung and guides him back a few steps, herding him away from the animal. Judging by the naked fear in his eyes, Daesung had not planned on following Seungri's example in the first place, but... It is just a precaution, Seunghyun tells himself. Just in case.  
  
He has no control over it. Protecting Daesung has become second nature, as instinctive as preserving himself.  
  
"Seungri, stay back," Jiyong snaps.  
  
"Look at it though," Seungri says, pointing, "There's obviously something wrong with it."  
  
"Which is why you should stay back. Don't touch it," Jiyong warns again, and this time Youngbae takes Seungri roughly by the arm and jerks him back-- not just _telling_ him he should be careful, but _showing_ him.  
  
"Why? Is it sick?" Seungri says, letting Youngbae manhandle him but somehow still doubting their concern. "Why are you all so..."  
  
Seunghyun wonders, looking again at the coyote, where the hell are this kid's survival instincts? Doesn't this scream danger to him? The flecks of foam on its lip line, the way it shuffles about, disoriented... all signs of something very wrong. Something they should stay far away from.  
  
Youngbae draws back, searching Seungri's face. "You've really never seen this before?"  
  
The coyote is clearly unbalanced, weaving from side to side as it walks. Every few steps it twists and snaps  at something only it can see, at nothing, teeth clipping shut on thin air. Ropes of saliva drip wetly from black lips, lips drawn back in a permanent grimace, and at the corners of its mouth-- foam.  
  
There is no denying what they are witnessing, though Seunghyun wishes fiercely that there was. Any other explanation for this would be welcome right now.  
  
"Gross," Seungri mutters, face contorting in disgust at the slobber and the foam. "Okay, even if it wasn't sick, that's disgusting."  
  
"Yes, it is," Seunghyun says lowly. "It's also a very bad sign."  
  
Beside him, Daesung trips back a few steps, a small sound like a whimper escaping him. Seunghyun follows, all but sticking to him.  
  
"Was hoping I'd never see this again," Youngbae says quietly.  
  
"So are you gonna tell me what's wrong with it? Or will you just keep warning me to stay back?" he says, face darkening. "I need to know what we're up against, too, you know."  
  
"Yes, Seungri, it's sick with something. It's _diseased_ ," Jiyong finally answers, stressing that last part. "So don't even go near it. Just leave the damn thing alone. If it were to bite you..."  
  
Seungri lurches back, suddenly fearful-- fucking _finally_ , Seunghyun thinks.  
  
As for the coyote, it does not seem to notice them at all. And it is that-- its utter lack of awareness, its glaring absence of fear at their presence-- that is the most alarming symptom. A healthy animal would have fled at first sight of them. But this one...  
  
Animals are supposed to be predictable, Seunghyun thinks. This one might do anything, anything at all, and he is ready for it but it still frightens him.  
  
"Jiyong." Youngbae turns to his friend with a face that seems stretched thin, as if caught in a painful memory.  
  
Jiyong's eyes flutter, open but unseeing, for a moment peering into the past.  
  
"Hyunseung..." he murmurs.  
  
"Huh?" Seungri doesn't try to hide his confusion.  
  
Jiyong squeezes his eyes shut, his grief plain for all of them to see. "Former packmate. Years ago. We... We lost him to this."  
  
Seungri frowns deeply. He looks like he wants to ask but isn't sure if he should.  
  
"Tell him what happened, Jiyong," Seunghyun says. Seungri should know. Seungri _needs_ to know. They cannot afford to let one of their own go uninformed. They all need to be prepared.  
  
Anxious eyes turn to their leader. "Jiyong?"  
  
Jiyong worries at his lip as he struggles over where to begin. Finally, he says, "It was fucking awful. He was fine one day, but the next--" He takes a deep breath to center himself. "Before we knew it he was suddenly so irritable, so easily provoked. And so _angry_. It wasn't like him. He would lash out at us for the smallest things." He smiles, and it's fucking tragic, Seunghyun thinks, how it reveals his troubled heart. "It didn't take much to set him off. We couldn't understand why he'd changed."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"Like--" Jiyong stops, shakes his head. "That's not important. It's just-- we knew something was wrong, we just didn't know _what_."  
  
Seunghyun is so tense he nearly jumps when a hand slips into his without warning. He glances over at Daesung, eyes catching on the other's throat as he swallows nervously.  
  
Jiyong continues, "Soon he couldn't eat, couldn't drink. Couldn't swallow anything." Fingers softly touch his own throat as he digs up the memory from somewhere deep and painful. "Drool everywhere. We tried to give him water to wash it down, but." He stops.  
  
"He couldn't drink it," Youngbae finishes for him.  
  
Jiyong scrubs a hand over his face, looking suddenly fatigued. "That was when we knew. _Fuck_. It still hurts after all these years."  
  
Youngbae lays a hand on his shoulder and squeezes, a small gesture meant to be comforting. Seunghyun wants to go to him too, but Daesung's hand in his-- his desperate hold-- keeps him rooted in place. He can't stand to see Jiyong tormented like this, haunted by the ghost of this thing that happened so many years ago, long before Daesung found them. Before _they_ found _him_.  
  
Seunghyun rubs his thumb over the back of Daesung's hand, both giving and receiving comfort through it.  
  
As for Seungri, he seems stricken-- exactly how Seunghyun feels every time he hears this story.  
  
"Did he...?"  
  
"By the end he was begging us to kill him."  
  
"Did you?" Seungri asks, looking ill.  
  
"I wish we had," Jiyong says, and the simple statement packs a punch; if Seungri's face was pale before, now it is bone white.  
  
"Oh," he whispers.  
  
"We thought he would get better," Jiyong says with dead eyes. "He didn't. He died a few days later."  
  
"I'm... I'm sorry, Jiyong," Seungri says, chewing hard on his lip.  
  
But Jiyong is not finished. "He could barely move by the end. Paralyzed head to toe. Fuck, it all happened so fast." Jiyong turns to their second youngest and says, voice thick with remorse and other things, "Daesung, I haven't told you this yet, so you might not be aware. I'm sorry."  
  
"I know of this disease," Daesung says softly.  
  
Seunghyun pull his hand free of Daesung's to sling a supportive arm around him, bringing him in flush against his side. "Your old pack?"  
  
"My sister," he says, eyes fixed on his feet. Seunghyun says nothing, only holds him harder, cradles him closer, a silent promise of solidarity. Because what can he say? Nothing that leaves his lips has the power to change what's been done. The past is set in stone; the best  they can do is learn from it, learn and grow and go boldly into their uncertain future, armed with new knowledge.  
  
And so the five of them look on with uneasy expressions at the ailing coyote as it stumbles away from them, meandering on down the path, fighting through its affliction to remain on its feet.  
  
After a few moments of watching this Daesung's face takes on a new expression: one of pity. He says, "I feel bad for it though. Hard to watch it suffer like this. Can't we, I don't know, put it out of its misery?"  
  
"No." Seunghyun shoots that idea down right away. "It's too risky."  
  
"We probably should though, to stop it from spreading," Jiyong murmurs in thought. "Never thought I'd say it, but right now we could really use one of those rifles that humans love so much." He laughs, the sound devoid of humor. Seunghyun hates it.  
  
"Jiyong," Seungri says in a voice that is suddenly very small. "How did you say it spreads?"  
  
"Through bites, for sure," Jiyong answers. "Not sure if there are other ways. We think it was a raccoon that got Hyunseung." He chuckles, again a terrible sound. "A fucking raccoon. I guess even top predators like us are powerless against some things."  
  
"How the mighty can fall," Seunghyun says under his breath. He ignores the strange look Daesung sends at him. "Damnit. Never thought we'd be dealing with rabies here. Not again, anyway."  
  
Then-- he nearly misses it-- he catches Seungri and Daesung sharing a worried look. It's there and gone in under a second.  
  
"Um," Daesung starts, eyes darting between his packmates, like he can't decide who to settle on. "Seungri was... Not very long ago..." He bites his lip. "Seungri, can I tell them?"  
  
"Yeah," Seungri says, his face as white as the full moon they had seen just a few nights ago. The moon under which the five of them had run and romped through the fields around their home, unable to sleep and with energy to burn.  
  
And if their playful chase had, for Seunghyun and Daesung, ended in a spirited fuck out in the field, fenced in on all sides by tall grass, the moon's pale light illuminating Daesung's skin and setting it aglow while Seunghyun had drilled into him so good and so unforgiving he had _screamed_ , well. No one would think it strange to hear a wolf at night howling at the moon, would they?  
  
"Seungri got bit a few weeks ago-- or was it more?" He looks to Seungri for confirmation; Seungri shrugs, looking lost. His words jarring Seunghyun from his reverie as effectively as if he had dropped an armful of snow down the back of his shirt.  
  
"Bit by _what?_ " Youngbae demands.  
  
"One of our coyotes," Daesung says so, so softly. "I was there. I saw it."  
  
" _What?_ " Jiyong's eyes threaten to pop out of his head. Youngbae straightens up, making himself a little taller, a little bigger, and eyes Seungri first with concern-- concern that morphs into suspicion.  
  
It's a terrible look on him, Seunghyun notes.  
  
"I knew there was something you weren't telling us," he says. "Slipped and cut your hand on a rock? Yeah, right."  
  
Seungri fidgets, twisting one hand in the other, like he's feeling over an old injury, and suddenly it all makes sense to Seunghyun. That had been a curious thing, and Daesung had been unusually strange about it. He should have known.  
  
"I couldn't!" Seungri cries, "I knew you guys would laugh if you knew the truth. I mean, a coyote? Coyotes are small and weak. It shouldn't have happened. It was bad enough that Daesung saw." He looks away, eyes hard. "It was embarrassing."  
  
"And slicing your palm open on a rock isn't? No wonder you ran off and bandaged it up before I could get a good look at it," Jiyong says sharply. His eyes darken as a serious thought seems to take hold of him. "Do you... Seungri, how would you say you feel right now?"  
  
"I feel fine," Seungri says adamantly. "I can't be sick. There's no way I'm sick from just that." He lifts his chin and stares squarely at their alpha, challenging him to say otherwise.  
  
"You might think that," Seunghyun murmurs, "but Seungri..."  
  
Seungri puts his hands up in defense. "Guys, I'm fine! Don't you think I would know by now? It's been weeks!"  
  
Youngbae speaks up since it seems Jiyong is, for once, at a loss for words. "We just. Seungri, we can't be sure. We don't know how long it takes for symptoms to show. What's the incubation period on this thing, anyway? Jiyong?"  
  
"How would I know?" Jiyong finds his voice long enough to bite out. "Some number of weeks. I don't know how many."  
  
Seungri's lips wobble a bit as he forces a smile on his face, still trying so hard to maintain that brave face of his. "Come on, guys. You don't really think...?"  
  
The others are grim-faced and silent as they stand back and behold Seungri with new eyes, with a fresh perspective. Seunghyun sees it in all of them, of course. The same fear.  
  
Fear _for_ him. Fear _of_ him.  
  
He steers Daesung behind him a bit. Daesung does not fight him.  
  
Seungri looks devastated. "So, what, you think I'm dangerous now?" he snaps, stepping out. They take a simultaneous step back, every one of them. Seungri makes a face like they just drove their claws right through his heart. "I'm a liability? Is that it?"  
  
No one moves. No one speaks.  
  
"Someone," he pleads. His eyes lock on Daesung, desperate. "Daesung, you were there, you said so. You saw what happened. There was nothing sick about those animals, right? They seemed perfectly healthy to me."  
  
Daesung hesitates a moment, seeming wholly conflicted, before saying, his normally smooth voice shot, "I guess so. I don't know." He stops there, looking to Seunghyun like he is on the verge of tears.  
  
Seungri's hopeful face falls.  
  
They _want_ to believe that Seungri is okay, that he _isn't_ harboring the beginnings of this vile disease they do not know how to counter. Furthermore, they desperately want to accept that Seungri's own body would not betray him, that he would never do something like _turn on them_ under the influence of some mysterious affliction.  
  
_If he is even infected at all_. Seunghyun wishes they had some way of knowing.  
  
But they don't. They just don't know, and what they do not know they must fear. Even if it means living with the memory of betrayal that stains Seungri's face as he comes to realize just how his packmates now see him.  
  
As a risk.  
  
"I can't fucking believe this," Seungri mutters in anger-- anger to mask the hurt. He refuses to look at any of them as he says, "Thanks for the vote of confidence. Shit, I didn't think--"  
  
"Seungri," Jiyong moans, pained and so apologetic. "I'm so sorry to do this to you. But until we know for sure..."  
  
"What are you going to do? Lock me up? Send me away?"  
  
"We're not sending you away," Youngbae says.  
  
"So you're locking me up," Seungri spits. Then, spilling out like poison, "I hate you all for this. I hope you know that."  
  
Jiyong flinches hard like he has just taken a hit, and it occurs to Seunghyun then how much this boy, Seungri, has come to mean to their leader. It had been Jiyong's idea to accept Seungri into their family in the first place. He must have seen something in him early on-- something he liked and wanted for himself.  
  
"Don't say that," Jiyong croaks. "We don't know how else to fight this." Then, quietly, "Please understand."  
  
Seungri scoffs. It's an ugly sound filled with spite, but there is pain in it, too. So much pain.  
  
"It'll just be a little distance. Just for a while," Youngbae adds as kindly as he can manage. "We'll still be around, we'll still be here for you. We'll just be keeping a closer eye on you. Until... well. Until whenever."  
  
Seungri shows them his back. "You want distance? Fine. I'm going home. Don't follow me."  
  
"Seungri--" Jiyong and Youngbae say together, reaching out for him, but it is too little too late.  
  
Seungri takes off.  
  
Seunghyun watches him go, thoughts a muddied mess. As the other wolf puts distance between them, his shape growing smaller with every hurried step away from them he takes-- just what they had wanted, he thinks, more than a little ashamed-- Seunghyun feels himself relaxing by fractions, fists unclenching, locked muscles loosening. Without his realizing, his body had prepared itself for combat.  
  
Last of all, the arm he has been using to shield Daesung, covering him, falls back to his side, finally at rest. And it is only then that he realizes...  
  
Fuck, he's _shaking_.  
  
He wonders, what would he have done had things taken a turn for the worse? They playfight all the time, but there would have been nothing playful about this. Seunghyun does not want to trade blows with Seungri, not truly.  
  
But had it come to that... for Daesung, he would have.  
  
This adds a whole new layer of complexity to Seungri's continuing struggle to find his place among them, to define his role within their pack. And he had finally been doing so _well_. Seunghyun sighs, disappointed.  
  
Youngbae had called it distance, but Seunghyun knows what he really meant. Isolation. At least until enough time has passed that they can be reasonably sure Seungri is infection-free.  
  
But how long is long enough? Their one experience with this ended in total failure, the loss of a good friend who had been fast-becoming family. _I'm so sorry, Hyunseung,_ he prays to the empty sky.  
  
A sound of pain at his side catches his ear and he turns. Daesung is worrying anxiously at his lip, which is red and inflamed. He has chewed it raw and it's just begun to bleed.  
  
"Hey," Seunghyun says, touching fingertips to the other's mouth. "Stop that."  
  
Daesung does stop, but only so that he can blurt out, "I should have stopped him that day. I should have talked him out of it. I could have, I-- I don't know why I didn't. He was just bored and looking for something to do."  
  
"This isn't your fault."  
  
"I know, but," Daesung starts, wringing his hands. "I didn't think much of it when he got bit. I even thought it was kind of--"  
  
His mouth snaps shut.  
  
"Kind of what?" Seunghyun prompts, still smoothing a gentle finger over his abused lip, little smears of blood coming off on the pad of his thumb.  
  
"...Deserved." Daesung whispers it with eyes closed, like he can't face him as he confesses. "I was wrong. He didn't deserve that. And he doesn't deserve this." Then, with a little more strength, "I hope he's okay."  
  
"Yeah." Seunghyun pauses to watch Seungri's form disappear over the top of a not-too-distant hill, the tips of his pale blond hair on fire under the evening sun. "Me too."

 

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

 

 

 

Seungri's quarantine goes about as well as can be expected.  
  
To his credit, Seungri does what they ask of him. He remains sequestered away in the room where they've placed him with a kind of dull resignation. They let him out from time to time, though always with supervision. Most days it's Jiyong who accompanies him. Sometimes Youngbae tags along, sometimes he takes his place altogether. Seunghyun fills in here and there for good measure.  
  
It does not escape Daesung's notice that the task never falls upon him. The others never ask him to. He never offers.  
  
Instead, what he does is slip in from time to time to keep the other boy company-- even if these meetings are usually short-lived. Because the separation is taking its toll on Seungri, and every day his already sour state worsens. Daesung cannot withstand his increasingly hostile aura, sees the contempt festering in him like an untreated wound. He radiates pain, and Daesung does more than just see it. Daesung _feels_ it. Some days, just being near Seungri leaves him feeling damaged.  
  
Rabies or not, he is incubating _something_. And, perhaps worst of all, he cannot shake the feeling that months of work, the most fragile of bonds forming between him and Seungri, have come undone.  
  
It isn't right.  
  
"How can you stand it?" he says to Seunghyun one day. "How much longer are we gonna keep this up? He seems fine."  
  
"I don't like it either, you know," is Seunghyun's gloomy reply. They have all become a bit brooding lately, as if Seungri's melancholy is contagious, impossible to contain behind that closed door. "But we'll get through it. He'll get over it. It's only temporary anyway."  
  
_And then we can all move on and forget this ever happened_ , Daesung hears.  
  
"I can't help thinking, though... What if it was me?" Daesung challenges. _Would you drive everyone away, lock me up to suffer alone?_ Daesung shudders. It's a terrible thought, one that fills him with fear, but it will not leave him alone.  
  
A pained look crosses Seunghyun's face. "I wouldn't leave you alone. I'd be right there with you."  
  
_So who does Seungri have?_ Daesung sighs, expecting that answer, but still. "This isn't... It isn't right."  
  
"No, but it's what has to be done."  
  
"Is it though?"  
  
"Yes, it is." Then Seunghyun looks Daesung straight in the eye as he adds, "And I really wish you wouldn't go in there with him alone. I know you want to help. You're too kind." He gives Daesung a weak smile. "But the two of you have never been on... the best of terms. Can't be any better now."  
  
Daesung wants to protest that, but Seunghyun isn't exactly wrong. Quietly, he says, "I understand your concern. But I still don't think--"  
  
"I don't think you do," Seunghyun interrupts. "Fuck, _Daesung_ , just think for a moment. Think about what could happen." He heaves a massive sigh and scrubs a calloused hand over his face. "I just don't want you to get hurt."  
  
"I have thought about it." _Too much._ "I know all the scenarios. I just don't think we have anything to worry about. I don't think he's the danger we're making him out to be. Seungri is fine. He... He has to be," Daesung says, speaking with confidence he doesn't really have.  
  
Seunghyun stares at him, eyes unblinking as they search his. To Daesung he seems so _tired_ , the skin under his eyes a little dark, his face a little drawn, all his angles that Daesung loves a little sharper than usual.  
  
"I know you're just looking out for me," Daesung says softly, "but this is wrong. We shouldn't isolate him. Seungri is... Right now he must at least as frightened as we are." Voice near a whisper, he says, "He needs us."  
  
"It's a risk."  
  
"One that I'm willing to take," Daesung says, surprising even himself. Seunghyun glowers at him for that, but through it Daesung sees his fear-- fear for him, fear for all of them, Seungri included.  
  
"What I don't understand is why. The two of you have never been close," Seunghyun says.  
  
Daesung presses his lips together in thought. "I don't know. It just feels like the right thing to do."  
  
"You care too much."  
  
"Maybe." Then, "Hey, why don't you come with me?" They have been a family of five for a few seasons now, yet unlike Jiyong and Youngbae, Daesung has seen Seunghyun do little to win Seungri over. And that just won't do. "Come on, spend some time with him. I bet you'll like him better if you just get to know him a little."  
  
"Yeah?" Seunghyun's brow quirks up in a way Daesung knows well. "And how, exactly, have you been _getting to know him?_ "  
  
"Not in the way you're implying." Not yet anyway.  
  
Seunghyun hums, seeming satisfied. "I'm surprised, actually. I've caught Jiyong with him more than a few times, and Youngbae too. Thought you were being extra stealthy." His brows furrow, thinking that over. "Though stealth... isn't exactly one of your strengths."  
  
" _Hey_."  
  
Seunghyun grins at him, all teeth.  
  
"Don't play dumb. You're right, you would know if Seungri and I were fooling around," Daesung points out. "You would know, and as soon as you found out you would make sure I knew it."  
  
"That's right," Seunghyun says, still grinning. "I wouldn't mind, actually, as long as it's just packbonding." His toothy grin turns downright predatory. "As long as you're ready for me to remind you who you belong to afterward." He dives in and nips sharply at Daesung's neck, teeth catching him just under the ear.  
  
"Like I could ever forget," Daesung says on a gasp. Like he would ever _want_ to.  
  
"I just think--" Seunghyun moves up from there to his ear, worrying the lobe between pointed teeth that, were to forget himself for even a moment, could do him so much harm. "I just think he's holding back. That there's more to him than--" He yelps as teeth sink into the soft skin of his ear and _pull_.  
  
"Are you still going on about Seungri?" Seunghyun lets go and draws back, licking at his lips.  
  
" _Yes_. Listen, please," Daesung says, angling himself away for a moment to compose himself while Seunghyun watches him, eyes beginning to glow with the flames of a familiar hunger. "I just think there's more to Seungri than what he shows us. Something better, something sweeter. Something... Something not so hard or prickly."  
  
He sees the way Seunghyun looking at him, a little like he has finally lost it, but Daesung perseveres. This is something he has sensed for quite some time now, something he thinks could be the key to finally getting through to Seungri. To Daesung, at least, this is important.  
  
"I what what you're thinking. It's right there on your face," He laughs, a clipped, embarrassed sound. "Call it a gut feeling, I don't know."  
  
Seunghyun sighs heavily. "Okay, sure. Seungri is a turtle hiding away in his shell while the rest of us are trying to get at him. Is that it? That's what you're getting at, right?"  
  
"Not a turtle," Daesung says, shoving down the laugh that bubbles up at the mental image. Turtles have shells. Seungri has _spines_. "Something sharper."  
  
Seunghyun thinks this over for a moment. "So Seungri has a thorny exterior but on the inside he is soft and warm and-- and delicious." He blinks slowly, thoughts whirling behind his big eyes like leaves circling in the wind until he says, simply, "Seungri is a porcupine."  
  
"A porcupine." Daesung laughs, surprised but pleasantly so. Even after years together, no one-- and Daesung means _no one_ \-- has the ability to awe him quite like Seunghyun.  
  
"Yes." Seunghyun stares, awaiting his approval.  
  
"That's-- Seunghyun, that's great," Daesung gushes. "Because porcupines, even though they're covered in these long spikes, they are vulnerable in one place. Just one," Daesung muses. After all, every living creature has a weak spot. Half a lifetime of hunting has taught him how to aim for it, how to latch on to that soft spot and not let up until his prey-- his meal, his sustenance, the fuel that keeps his body fed and _alive_ \-- has been won.  
  
"The belly," Seunghyun says decisively.  
  
"The belly," Daesung agrees. "I think Seungri is trying to keep us from getting at his soft belly." _Where we could really hurt him._  
  
"I don't know about that," Seunghyun says, pressing in close again. "He seems perfectly fine with letting Jiyong feel all _over_ his belly... and below." He waggles his eyebrows comically. "Youngbae too. And I'm sure he would let me if I made a pass at him. He's rolled over for me before."  
  
"Wait, what? Really?" Daesung draws back, not sure he heard that right. Seunghyun nods. "So did you...?"  
  
"Was tempted. He has a nice ass." Seunghyun's arms weave around Daesung's waist as he crushes their bodies together, fingers brushing the base of his tail along the way. "But I went and found you instead. Problem solved."  
  
"Huh," Daesung says. Must be a dominance thing. Seunghyun does have that effect.  
  
"I might have slapped it though-- but just once, just for fun."  
  
Daesung snorts in amusement and returns the embrace. "I'm just glad you two are getting along."  
  
"Maybe it's just you he's keeping at a distance." The arms around him tighten. "Though I can't imagine why."  
  
Daesung frowns deeply at that. "Could be," he says, and it comes out far weaker than he likes. It hurts a bit to think that Seunghyun could be right, that even after so many months as a family he and Seungri may as well have miles between them.  
  
"He doesn't know what he's missing." Seunghyun hums, pushing his face into Daesung's in something closely resembling a nuzzle. "Oh well. Less of you for Seungri means more of you for me."  
  
Daesung smiles, a pleasant warmth unfurling inside, and turns his face into Seunghyun's, and nuzzles his mate right back.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
"Hey." The door behind Daesung closes with a quiet click. "How you holding up?"  
  
"I heard most of that, you know," Seungri grumbles from where he sits cross-legged on the mattress. They've given him that, at least. It had been Jiyong's idea. "I'm not a fucking porcupine."  
  
"Oh," Daesung says, looking everywhere but directly at the other boy. "Sorry if we were too loud."  
  
"I wish you'd been louder. Anything is better than this-- this _silence_. I'm going out of my mind in here," Seungri snaps, and Daesung steals a moment to take a good, long look at him. Daesung feels tired just looking at him, noting how the skin under his eyes seems bruised, darker than usual. The contrast of it against his washed-out complexion and the white-blond of his hair makes it difficult to look away.  
  
...His hair, which Daesung still finds himself staring at some days, unable to tear his eyes away. Until Seungri, he had never seen anything like it. And when the sun catches it just right--  
  
"What are you staring at?"  
  
"Your hair," Daesung says, ignoring the scowl Seungri sends his way. "It's _blinding_. I've been meaning to ask, how did you end up with hair like that, anyway? I guess it runs in the family?" He wonders if the other boy was picked on because of it, growing up. It's truly unique among their kind.  
  
Seungri narrows his eyes at him. "Oh, so that's why you always look like the sun is in your eyes."  
  
Daesung's brows furrow. "Huh?"  
  
"Squinting. Don't you get tired after a while?"  
  
Daesung's mouth falls open in surprise. "I'm not _squinting_. These are my eyes." He blinks Seungri across the room from him, bewildered and more than a little insulted.  
  
"Oh, so they're just small," Seungri says, and this time it is more than just unkind. It's clearly meant to be cruel.  
  
Daesung knows what Seungri is doing. And though it's hard not to, he will not rise to the bait. He didn't come here to fight.  
  
So he rubs at his crossed arms nervously, bracing himself in case the other boy sends more barbs his way. _Like a porcupine's quills_ , he thinks, clinging to Seunghyun's analogy despite Seungri's distaste for it. _Just don't let them connect._  
  
"Look, this isn't fair, I know. And I wish I could do more to help, but..."  
  
Seungri's eyes flash. "Why are you even here? I'm dangerous, haven't you heard?"  
  
"I don't think you're dangerous."  
  
"Then why didn't you say something before? Before they made the decision to practically cage me up. You were there when it happened. You could have at least--" His hand curls in the blanket under him. "You could have stood up for me a little."  
  
Daesung is silent for a long time. "Seungri, have you ever seen what rabies does to a person?"  
  
"No. But I doubt I need to. Jiyong's account sounded horrible enough." He straightens up suddenly and the mattress squeals with the movement as he cries, "But I'm not that! Why can't you all see that there's nothing wrong with me?"  
  
With great effort, Daesung confesses, "We're scared, Seungri. Sometimes people do terrible things when they're scared."  
  
"Yeah, well," Seungri says, voice deepening into a growl, "It feels fuckin' awful."  
  
"I know. I'm sorry."  
  
"Just go," Seungri says glumly. "You can't help me anyway. You're practically powerless."  
  
Daesung's brow furrows. "What?"  
  
"Too low in the pecking order. Hell, you'd still be at the bottom if--" Seungri stops. Stares down at the mattress, shaking his head. "How you even survived before Seunghyun took an interest in you, I have no idea."  
  
That's it. Daesung has had enough.  
  
"What's your problem?" he cries, meeting Seungri's glare with one of his own. "You're just _trying_ to drive me away, aren't you? I came here for you--"  
  
"Not the brightest idea."  
  
"--because infected or not, I don't think you should be alone. But maybe _alone_ is what you want." _Maybe it's what you **deserve**_. Daesung bites his tongue to avoid that last bit, so hard he thinks he tastes blood, but _god_ , it takes everything he has.  
  
Seungri laughs-- fucking _laughs_. It's a terrible, twisted sound. "What, does the truth hurt? Or is it just hearing it from the _omega_ that you can't stand?" He sneers. "You take this kind of abuse from Seunghyun all the time. You take it lying down."  
  
Daesung growls, fingers curling and uncurling with a familiar itch. How _dare_ he. Seunghyun does not hurt him like this, not with words. Seunghyun never _means_ to hurt him to begin with. Seungri has _no_ idea what he's stepping into.  
  
His flexing fingers form a fist. "You're just trying to pick a fight with me!"  
  
"And you're trying too hard!"  
  
" _What?_ " Daesung hates how shrill his voice becomes, how high it can go when pushed past the limits of his patience, uncommon as it is. "What are you even--"  
  
Seungri snarls, teeth bared, "You're trying too fucking hard. I don't need your sympathy or-- or your _pity_. I don't want it! Just leave me alone! You and everyone else!"  
  
"Then why do you even stay? Here, with us?" Daesung shrieks, completely losing his cool at last. "Just go back to your old pack if you hate us so much!"  
  
"They're gone!" Seungri shouts back. "I told you. Probably all fuckin' dead."  
  
"Not that pack," Daesung says, "The one that tried to ambush us that night we took you in."  
  
"That night you all kidnapped me, you mean."  
  
Daesung gapes at him. "We did not _kidnap_ you. Jiyong gave you a choice. You chose us."  
  
"Which is why it fucking hurts that you're not choosing me now!" Seungri howls, tears springing to his eyes just like that, and _damnit_... Daesung feels like utter garbage. How did they end up here, like this? Whatever happened to wanting to help? Seems all he's doing is making things worse.  
  
"Seungri," he says.  
  
"You're choosing your own goddamn fear over me. You've fucking locked me up like an animal while you all watch and wait, wondering what I'll do, wondering when I'll-- when I'll turn."  
  
And there it is, the fear.  
  
"When?" Daesung makes a face. "Not _when_ , Seungri, we're waiting to see _if_ you'll turn. We're being cautious because it's all we know to do!" God, they're just going in circles. "And by the way, I'm fighting for you. This isn't right, it's so fucking wrong. I'm with you on that. I am _on your side_ , Seungri, but you have to work with me!"  
  
"I never asked you to be," Seungri says, turning away to scrub at his eyes. "Don't think you can just swoop in and save me. I'm not some damsel in distress. I don't need your help. I don't need you."  
  
Daesung stares down at the other wolf as something that had been lurking nearby finally creeps in, something like defeat. He feels beaten down and tired. This was not the outcome he wanted when he decided to visit Seungri today, not even close.  
  
"Are you really so unhappy here?" he asks. Seunghyun's words come back to him and he changes course. "What about me? Why are you always so unhappy around me? I've seen how you are with with the others. Jiyong, Youngbae. You're great with them."  
  
Even Seunghyun, who has yet to make an effort to know their youngest, commands enough respect from him to be satisfied. It is as if, between the three of them, there is none left over for Daesung. Some days he feels like he is fighting for scraps. Forget friendship, that distant dream. At this point he just wants Seungri to regard him as an equal.  
  
"Why can't you and I get along? Why don't we?" His voice diminishing with every word, Daesung says, "Sometimes I'm sure you hate me and... I've never been able to figure out why."  
  
Seungri falls quiet for a long time, as if considering his next words carefully. "I don't hate you," he eventually says.  
  
"Could have fooled me."  
  
"It's not... you, specifically."  
  
Daesung resists the urge to sigh. He knows what this is about. Had thought that maybe the other wolf had moved on, but no.  
  
"You can't be the alpha here, Seungri," he says, taking aim at what he knows to be the source of all Seungri's angst. Going straight for that weak point, that tender spot tucked away under a tangle of spines.  
  
Because ever since the beginning Seungri has struggled to accept his role in their pack. Daesung cannot fathom why it is so important to him, his status among them. His obsession with rank consumes him. Why would anyone want to shoulder the burden of responsibility that Jiyong carries every day as their leader? His decisions have the power to spell life or death for all of them.  
  
Daesung would never want that. So why does Seungri?  
  
"Fuck being alpha. I don't care about that anymore. I just don't want to be omega," Seungri says petulantly.  
  
Daesung is done with this. He doesn't want to play this tired game anymore.  
  
"I would happily retake the role-- if only if the decision was mine to make," he says, so much bad blood between them making his stomach churn. "Since you can't seem to handle it."  
  
"...What?" Seungri's eyes seem to flare an alarming shade of molten gold, there and gone before Daesung can register it. He is sure he imagined it. He knows his next words are a bad idea, bound to bring about violence between them. He and Seungri are teetering on the edge of it, one wrong word away from settling this the old-fashioned way: with fists and claws.  
  
Fuck it. Against his better judgment, Daesung continues.  
  
"There's nothing easy about being omega. Only the strong survive it," Daesung says slowly. _I would know._  
  
"Strong?" Seungri does not look convinced.  
  
"It's a different kind of strength." He forces forcing the words out through his fear, heart racing as he thrusts his honest opinion at Seungri like a spear. "One I don't think you have."  
  
Seungri is watching him closely, listening intently, a growl steadily building low in his throat as Daesung speaks to him in terms he will understand-- the concept of strength over weakness deeply ingrained in all wolves at birth, honed instinctively from the time they are old enough to crawl until it is polished and sharp.  
  
Daesung is not one for displays of dominance. But maybe-- if the language he uses is right, less rooted in compassion and more in something Seungri will recognize, like _power_ \-- maybe words will be enough.  
  
"If you were stronger you'd rise to the challenge," Daesung continues, voice unsteady, on the verge of shaking and, _fuck_ , wouldn't that be humiliating. "But you won't. You keep running away from it. You're--" He sucks in a breath, unable to say any more. _I shouldn't._  
  
"Say it," Seungri presses him, "Go on, _say it_."  
  
"I'm saying..." Daesung quakes where he stands, fighting not to back down now that he has begun. He knows he is walking right into the trap the other wolf has laid for him... But _god_ , there is just something about this boy that burns all his usual calm to ashes.  
  
"Just spit it out already!"  
  
With gritted teeth he forces out, "I'm saying you're weak, Seungri. You're fucking _weak!_ "  
  
The claws finally come out.  
  
There is no pause, no stretch of silence to let the words sink in. No doubt Seungri knew what Daesung wanted to say to him long before he said it, and has been ready for it, legs folded under him like a serpent coiled and awaiting an ideal moment to strike. And while Seungri may not be as agile as Jiyong, or as lightning-fast as Youngbae, he is still quick on his feet and is across the room and lashing out at him before Daesung can set his own body into motion.  
  
Daesung trips over his own feet in his haste to get away. But before he can hit the floor his back collides with a wall-- sparing him that humiliation, at least. A fiery pain flares in his side.  
  
Mere feet away, Seungri's face floods with surprise. He stares down, astonished, at the bright red blood coating his elongated claws.  
  
"I--"  
  
Daesung glances down at himself, at the stain soaking through what was once, many years ago, a white shirt. The front hangs open in shreds where Seungri's claws had caught him, the material soaking up more of his blood with every passing second, his racing heart pumping it through him, pumping it _out_ of him.  
  
"I didn't mean--"  
  
His hand flies up to cover the wound, more out of reflex than anything. He looks back at Seungri, a little in shock himself. Definitely not how Daesung saw this playing out when he first slipped into the room earlier. Not at all.  
  
"You--" He laughs weakly, but it comes out as more of a wet gasp, the motion bringing him a fresh wave of pain. "Really?"  
  
When Seungri finally gathers his wits enough to speak all that comes out is a pitiful " _I didn't mean to_." He moans it like _he_ is the one hurt, cut open and bleeding out. Daesung almost laughs again, but remembers not to just in time.  
  
Seungri reaches for him. "Daesung, I'm so sor--"  
  
The door to the room flies open, his packmates pour in, and Daesung's world descends into chaos.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
It is like a scene straight out of one of his nightmares.  
  
It takes only a cursory glance between their two youngest for Seunghyun to know what has just happened. Daesung bleeding, Seungri peering down in apparent confusion at his blood-covered claws like they've betrayed him. Like his hand acted without his permission. Like it might turn and attack _him_ next, drawing blood from his body like it did Daesung.  
  
Isn't this what they've feared all along?  
  
Seungri's eyes snap up to him, panicked, and that is when Seunghyun lunges. Subduing the threat comes first.  
  
He lands squarely on Seungri, taking the other wolf to the floor so hard the impact hurts _him_ , too. In the most fearsome tone he can summon, he snarls, "You _fucker_. What did you do?!"  
  
"Seunghyun!" Seungri gasps, breaking suddenly from his stupor. He bucks under him but can do little against Seunghyun's size, his weight, and worst of all, his _rage_.  
  
"I should do the same to you!" Seunghyun shouts into his face.  
  
"Get off me!" Seungri shrieks-- and when that doesn't work, panics and _bites_ , sharp teeth nearly taking off the tip of Seunghyun's nose.  
  
Seunghyun curses and scrambles up and off of him, instinct driving him back and away from the threat for a change. Because if their suspicions are correct, which seems more likely by the minute-- if Seungri bites him-- it's all over. Seungri backs away on his ass and Seunghyun lets him go, satisfied by his retreat.  
  
Besides, he needs to check on Daesung.  
  
By the time he turns, the others have ushered Daesung through the open doorway and out of the room. Once at his side he sees that Jiyong has lifted Daesung's shirt by the hem to inspect the damage. Seunghyun's eyes hone in on the four crimson gashes cut across his ribs, the blood streaming down his side and front in rivulets.  
  
It feels like his heart seizes up. Seungri's claws had caught Daesung in the narrow space between his breast and where his ribcage ends. If he had gotten him even a few inches lower...  
  
"Did he bite you?" Seunghyun demands, frantic, stepping in and not caring that he forces Youngbae aside. Youngbae slides away smoothly, making room for him without protest, and places himself strategically between them and Seungri.  
  
Seungri, who has climbed to his feet and stands alone, visibly shaken.  
  
"No," Daesung says weakly. His bloody fingers keep finding the cuts, feeling along the edges of opened skin with a kind of detached curiosity. Seunghyun takes his hand and forces it down to his side where he can't make it worse.  
  
"Just claws?"  
  
"Just claws." Daesung stares across the room at Seungri, seeming not to notice to their fussing over him.  
  
"Hold your shirt," Jiyong instructs him. Daesung does as he is told, wet fingers curling in his bunched-up shirt while Jiyong leans in to get a closer look.  
  
As his chest heaves, Daesung's breath coming fast and hard, his wounds open and close, open and close. Through skin and torn muscle Seunghyun thinks he spies a flash of white. He can't say he is surprised. Their claws are sharp, and ribs lie close to the surface.  
  
He's been slashed to the bone.  
  
Jiyong draws back. "It's not-- doesn't look too deep," he says after a moment, and Seunghyun decides not to correct him. Daesung isn't squeamish, not exactly, but the last thing they need right now is their pack's most flight prone member freaking the fuck out think he's hurt worse than he is.  
  
"That's not the problem here," Seunghyun says, heart thundering in his chest. "What about-- Do you think--"  
  
He cannot control his rising hysteria, and he fucking _hates_ it, this feeling of powerlessness. It might be too late already. An irreversible sequence of events may have been set in motion, and it sickens Seunghyun to think that he was too late to stop it.  
  
Too late. Or too _lax_. He had fucking _told_ Daesung to stay away from Seungri, hadn't he? Until they knew for sure?  
  
"Can it spread through claws? Claw marks?"  
  
"I'm not sure," Jiyong says tersely. He helps Daesung out of his shirt and wads it up, closes Daesung's trembling fingers around it and presses it to his wounds.  
  
"Or is it only through bite wounds? Saliva?" Seunghyun babbles, his mounting fear on the verge of taking over. " _Jiyong_ , help me out here."  
  
"I don't know!" Jiyong snaps. "I don't know, so stop asking me! Daesung, hold it-- here, _like this_."  
  
"I didn't mean to!" a voice cries from across the room. They turn with wary eyes and find Seungri right where they left him, clutching at his claws and shaking like a leaf in the wind.  
  
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he chokes, eyes red and a little wet. "Is he okay? Are you... Daesung?"  
  
"I'm okay," Daesung replies, his voice a bit hollow.  
  
"He believed in you," Seunghyun growls, glaring at him with eyes that could kill.  
  
"I know. I really didn't mean to though." Seungri stops, his throat closing up.  
  
He takes a tentative step toward them. They take a step back-- the four of them shrinking away from Seungri together, as one.  
  
And that's when Seunghyun sees it, the moment Seungri's ribs seem to open up, his heart plunging to the floor and bursting open in a bloody mess. He whimpers, pained, and with his other hand, clutches his claws harder, tighter, enough to cut himself on them if he wanted. Seunghyun wonders whose blood it is he sees smeared on that hand-- Daesung's or his?  
  
"Maybe you were all right. All this time. Maybe I am sick after all." Except for his tail, which curls tightly between his legs, he seems to sag all over, defeated.  
  
"Seungri," Jiyong tries. He extends a cautious hand toward him, but the indecision written across his face betrays him.  
  
Their fearless leader, filled with such doubt. Seunghyun never thought he'd see the day.  
  
Seungri trips back a step. Then another, and soon another. Jiyong does not pursue him; none of them do. And with every second they spend hesitating, debating whether or not to pursue him, Seungri keeps going, inching away until he has arrived at the door that leads outside. With a persecuted look back at them that Seunghyun will never forget, he slips out and disappears.  
  
A heavy silence settles over them.  
  
"Will he be back?" Daesung asks in a voice so wretched and small Seunghyun is surprised the words come out at all.  
  
"We'll go after him if he's not back by nightfall," Youngbae says, looking to Jiyong for confirmation. The other wolf nods, face grim. "It's too cold these days to spend the night outside alone."  
  
Seunghyun gives all his attention over to Daesung then, takes in all his mate's obvious distress. He lingers on the balled-up, bloodied shirt held to his side in a white-knuckled grip, on the uncertainty evident in troubled eyes as his breathing calms and his shaking subsides.  
  
Forget Seungri. Seunghyun will leave him in the care of Jiyong and Youngbae. And if he never comes back? So what? He feels bad for the kid, sure, but how or why this happened it does not matter. It _should not have happened._  
  
He knows he is being heartless, but he does not have room in his heart for Seungri right now. All his heart is right here in front of him, hurt and confused and so, so afraid.  
  
His priority right now is Daesung. His priority is always Daesung.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
In the end Seungri does return, with a little coaxing from Jiyong and Youngbae-- just how much coaxing Seunghyun doesn't know, and he doesn't ask-- and the next matter of importance is what do they do with him now? Now that they have every reason to put him away where he can be safely observed for signs of further collapse. Safely, and this time much more carefully.  
  
What's more, what do they do with Daesung? They cannot possibly room the two of them together, not after what's just happened. At just the mention of it Seunghyun guards Daesung with a fierce jealously, shielding him from the others. Prepared to defend his mate's right to freedom with teeth and claws, he will not so much as allow Jiyong or Youngbae near him.  
  
And in keeping with the promise he made, if Daesung gets shut away, so does he, he tells them all. He will not leave him.  
  
"And then what becomes of our pack?" he challenges, taking the issue to Jiyong. "What's the point of all this anymore, anyway?"  
  
Eventually Seunghyun's stubborn refusal to give Daesung up to quarantine wins out, Jiyong unwilling to fight any one of them any longer. Daesung walks free-- and with him, Seungri.  
  
"Well, if we're gonna go down," Jiyong reasons, "I guess we'll all go down together. That's the kind of pack we've always been, isn't it?" To Seungri he says, "I'm sorry we lost sight of that. Think you can ever forgive us?"  
  
The smile Seungri gives him in reply is tight and short-lived, but it's something, at least. "I'll try." Then, suddenly finding his feet oh-so-interesting, "I don't hate any of you, by the way. That was... I didn't mean that."  
  
"We know," Youngbae beats the rest of them to saying, and with that Seungri seems satisfied.  
  
Now they rebuild... while hoping and praying that their brush with this terrible sickness is over for good, firmly in the past.  
  
"Seunghyun," Daesung says late one night, quietly so as not to disturb the others. They are in their usual position, Seunghyun plastered against Daesung's strong back, arms wrapped comfortably around him in the dark. What makes this unusual is the bandage crudely fashioned and loosely tied around Daesung's chest and sides, his wounds covered while they knit back together. His injuries are mending well, accelerated healing kicking in and making short work of the marks, nothing amiss as far as any of them can tell.  
  
But one can never be too sure.  
  
"Hm," is about all the acknowledgement Seunghyun can manage in his sleepy state.  
  
Daesung turns his head just a fraction, his hair tickling the end of Seunghyun's nose.  
  
"If I'm... If I get sick..."  
  
Their bubble of quiet calm pops, Seunghyun's slow descent into sleep rudely interrupted.  
  
"Don't," he says sharply.  
  
A hush falls over them. Peace and quiet for a few blessed moments.  
  
"I think it's going to be okay, Seunghyun," Daesung continues, this time with conviction. "I feel fine. And Seungri hasn't shown any more symptoms since-- well, you know."  
  
"Daesung, _don't_."  
  
"But just in case," he murmurs in a low voice, "On the off chance that I..." In the silence Seunghyun hears him swallow, the faint _click_ of his throat as it closes and opens, and it is such a familiar sound that to imagine one day never hearing it again instills in him a great and terrible fear, one he runs from every time it rears its ugly head.  
  
"I said _stop it_. I don't want to hear this," he hisses.  
  
Daesung tenses up in his arms. "If I start to change, would you..."  
  
He trails off again. He cannot seem to say it, and for that, at least, Seunghyun is immeasurably grateful. Just the thought of what Daesung is attempting to ask him leaves him with a strange fusion of fury and fright, raw inside and out, like one of his layers has been stripped clean off.  
  
" _No_ ," he says vehemently. "No, I would _not_. Don't even fucking think about asking me because I wouldn't do it. I won't. I would never."  
  
"I can't imagine hurting any of you," Daesung tells him in little more than a whisper. "I wouldn't be able to live with myself after. And for you to see me like that... At my worst, there at the end..."  
  
"Daesung," Seunghyun sits up and takes Daesung's face in hand, turning it roughly so that he looks up at him. "No matter when or how it happens, or how bad it gets, I will be with you there at the end. I will tear this whole _fucking_ planet apart if I have to to make sure that I am."  
  
Seunghyun has never meant anything more. To pledge that is to bare his soul. It is not a scenario he spends much time thinking about because to let the thought even cross the paths of his mind tangles him up in a terrified rage, but he knows in his heart how he wants it to go.  
  
He wants to be at Daesung's side for every breath leading up to that inevitable end. Wants to be looking into the other man's eyes as their bright light fades. Wants to be the last thing Daesung sees before life leaves him and he leaves this world behind.  
  
Before he leaves Seunghyun behind.  
  
Because if Seunghyun has ever been sure of one thing, it is that if Daesung perishes first, he will be the last thing in this life that he ever sees, and certainly the last he loves. Daesung is his heart. Without him he cannot survive.  
  
The soft smile Daesung awards him is one of contentment, of someone wholly at peace. "For what it's worth," he says, leaning up to connect their lips in a kiss that lingers, "I wouldn't be able to either. If it was you."  
  
"Good." Seunghyun, short and sharp, and settles down behind him again. He makes himself comfortable there, burying deep all thoughts of death and disease and their own delicate mortality.  
  
And that is the last they speak of it.

 

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

 

 

 

As autumn fades into the first days of winter, the changing season brings with it a string of storms and days of seemingly endless rain. Cold water pours down on the land day and night, unceasing, drowning the earth and turning the soil to mush for them to sink and slip in anytime they need to step outside.  
  
It is miserable. It is _worse_ than miserable. They hate hunting in the rain but it has to be done. They cannot stay holed up in their flimsy shelter forever; they have to eat, and frequently. It is the curse of their naturally fast metabolisms. It keeps them lean and strong, helping them pack on chiseled muscle and burn away fat. But it also keeps them ravenous, dependent on frequent meals. _Feast or famine_ is a mantra they live by.  
  
And so, though their stomachs are not yet growling at them, the lure of hunger still safely enough behind them, they venture out at intervals to see what prey they can find in the rain. Some days it is enough to know that they tried.  
  
It isn't long before their hopeful hunting turns into tired traipsing through the mud, their minds and feet weary. And that is when it devolves into a vicious mud fight. They are young still and appropriately playful, carefree and wild and so _alive_. Their wounds have mended, physically and emotionally, not forgotten but forgiven.  
  
And the fear of illness-- _rabies_ , they had whispered every time, as if afraid to even speak it-- is lifted and carried away on the wind with the slow and steady passage of time.  
  
They are okay. They are healthy and happy as ever. They have nothing to fear from each other any longer. It is a start. It is a new start.  
  
Now if only they could do something about all this rain.  
  
They get mud in their mouths and don't care. What is a little mud on the tongue when they noisily suck down warm blood at meals, when with soiled hands they wipe the oily residue of fat from their faces, when day and night, whenever and wherever they so desire, they sip on each other's sexes and swallow each other's come? Their existence is a filthy one, filled with dangers and delights; they must be equally filthy to survive it.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
To their growing dismay, it goes on and on. The rain has not let up in days.  
  
The skies are dark and dreary, the ground sodden as water pours from the clouds in abundance for days on end, never letting up even once as far as Seunghyun can tell. He stands in their home, a little cold and a little damp, and feels like he's suffocating.  
  
It is unseasonable weather for this region, highly unusual in a land that spends most of the year just this side of dry, its hills and valleys tinged more golden brown than verdant green. Never before have they seen such a steady, substantial downpour. Not here. Not in this region.  
  
Every time Seunghyun steps outside he nearly slips and falls in the slick mud. Sometimes he does fall, and the resulting splash is as impressive as it is painful. For though soft, the soaked earth does little to cushion him. If his packmates are around to witness his plight they laugh, poking and teasing him for his inability to stay on his feet. Seunghyun laughs right along with them... until he regains his footing and swiftly punishes them for it. That is, if he does not go down in the slop again before he can reach them.  
  
But staying in and waiting it out is not an option. Sooner or later they must eat.  
  
"I miss the sun," Daesung mourns after more than a week of gray skies.  
  
"Same," Seunghyun says. The sun would be a welcome sight right now. He loves the rain as much as anyone, the sound and smell of it above all, and he knows this area needs it. But this is too much.  
  
"We're heading out," Jiyong calls to them, shrugging on a jacket even though it isn't even very cold, despite being early winter. The weather here really needs to make up its mind. "Ready to get wet?"  
  
"Get wet? More like get drowned," he complains. He appreciates Jiyong trying to lighten the mood, but it's no use.  
  
"Can't wait," Seungri grumbles as he climbs to his feet and joins them. "Will this ever end."  
  
"It won't last forever. It can't," Daesung tries to reassure, but the glimmer of a question in his eyes as he says it, as if looking to him for confirmation, tells all. Seunghyun reaches out and ruffles his hair-- for now soft and attractively fluffed up from days spent lounging in bed as he longed for the rain to pass, but very soon to be a sopping wet mess.  
  
Of course, he had not spent those days alone. Seunghyun had been right there with him, whittling away the hours inside Daesung, holding his mate open as he fucked him steadily through the storm. They had lost time like that, keeping pace with the thrumming of the rain, Seunghyun grunting and growling with the rumbling of thunder overhead, Daesung howling with the winter wind outside, sparks of pleasure behind closed eyes like flashes of lightning illuminating their dim-lit room. In this way they had taken shelter from the storm, drowning not in the rain but in each other, riding out the tempest until Seunghyun had felt _chafed_ and had, with the greatest reluctance, needed give it a rest.  
  
But before long, an old need arises. It drives them to their feet and sets them in motion again. It is, of course, the need to feed.  
  
These are poor conditions for hunting. Tracks don't last long in the rain, and in the damp, hunting by scent will be difficult at best. Much of their usual prey will be bedded down, reluctant to rise and brave the rain unless strictly necessary.  
  
Yet they cannot stay in and wait any longer, not unless they are willing to endure hunger's bite. Enough time has passed. They complain loudly about it as they leave the safety of their home, venturing out as five to better their chances. Seunghyun reminds himself that the grumbling of their mouths is nothing when compared to the grumbling of their stomachs that they'll be hearing if they don't catch and consume something fairly soon.  
  
They are hungry. They need to eat. They will find something, one way or another.  
  
"Hear that?" Youngbae says suddenly, grinding to a halt. The rest of them follow suit, straining their ears to hear what Youngbae does over the rain's unceasing rhythm.  
  
"The river," Seunghyun says, realization dawning.  
  
"But we're not anywhere near it," Seungri says with wide eyes.  
  
"It's all this rain," Jiyong points out. "The river must have leapt its banks by now. Area's probably flooded. We should steer clear of it."  
  
Beside him Seunghyun catches Daesung shifting uneasily from foot to foot. It's subtle, but he has long since learned all of the other's nervous habits.  
  
"Bet it's twice its usual size. Maybe bigger," Youngbae adds, sounding, to Seunghyun, unnervingly intrigued.  
  
"Well let's not find out," Seunghyun says quickly. He smoothes a hand over Daesung's nape and squeezes, fingers pressing into the muscle on either side of his neck. It has the effect of calming both him _and_ Daesung, the other relaxing almost imperceptibly under the heat of his palm, chin dipping toward his chest and eyes going a little hazy.  
  
When done right, triggering Daesung's submissive response can be more than just a display of dominance.  
  
Jiyong nods and they continue onward, turning away from the roaring of the river and the threat of its raging rapids. It is far too perilous to linger near it, even more so when one among them does not yet know how to swim.  
  
They travel on for some time, combing the area until their clothes are soaked through and their hair is pasted to their faces. It's miserable work, plodding along through the mud like this, looking and listening intently for nearby signs of life. Seunghyun feels like for every two steps forward he loses one sliding back-- or sinking down. He quickly tires of stopping to tug a captive leg free of the muck.  
  
After a time, their march takes them up a rocky hillside where the cover of trees gives them a brief respite from the rain. Even so, it is slow going, and Seunghyun can't keep quiet about it any longer.  
  
"This is ridiculous," complains to Daesung. "We're not going to find anything like this. We're definitely not going to _catch_ anything like this."  
  
"Yeah," Daesung agrees quietly.  
  
"Even if I see something, how am I supposed to give chase when I can barely even walk? I hate this."  
  
"Yeah," he hears again. He turns to find Daesung staring down at his legs as he trudges on, feet in the mud making disgusting sucking noises with every step.  
  
Seunghyun elbows him sharply. "That's all you have to say?"  
  
"What do you want me to say? " Daesung says, peering at him through wet bangs. "That Jiyong is crazy? That Jiyong doesn't know what he's doing?" Dropping his voice low, he says, "I can't-- I can't say those things. I shouldn't."  
  
An immense fondness for the other man unfolds inside Seunghyun then, like a flower opening its petals to sunlight. "You'll never say a bad thing about anyone, will you?"  
  
"I try not to," Daesung replies with a cryptic smile. "I don't always succeed."  
  
Seunghyun sticks his lip out at him. "Sometimes I just want you to agree with me. Or at least act like you do."  
  
"You want me to say things I don't mean?"  
  
"Sure, if that's how you want to put it."  
  
"You're a bad influence, you know," Daesung says with the barest of smiles.  
  
Seunghyun swats him over head for that, sending a spray of water flying from his hair. Daesung ducks and laughs, surprised, and suddenly the rain beating down on Seunghyun feels a little lighter, the sky a little brighter.  
  
And so they continue on across the landscape trading quips and giving more attention to each other than to their surroundings, their looming hunger all but forgotten for a time. Gingerly, they pick their way through piles of rocks littering the ground, loosely scattered across the expanse of soft mud. The rocks are tempting footholds but are unpredictable, prone to rolling over or giving out under their weight entirely.  
  
Soon they have lost sight of what they set out to do and have made a game of it, hopping from one wobbling rock to the next, bumping shoulders as they take turns trying to knock each other over, working out a precarious path forward while doing their best to keep up with Jiyong, Youngbae, and Seungri, who seem to edge farther away the longer they play.  
  
Winner is whoever keeps his footing and stays ahead. At least, Seunghyun thinks those are the rules. They're making this up as they go.  
  
"What are you two doing?" Youngbae calls out to them, finally taking notice of how far behind they have fallen.  
  
"Making the best of a bad day!" Seunghyun shouts back.  
  
Jiyong and Seungri turn in unison, sparks of amusement lighting up their drenched faces, which had before been as gloomy as the sky above.  
  
"You're like children!" Jiyong fusses at them, but he is smiling all the same.  
  
"Sorry, Jiyong!" Daesung laughs, "We were just--"  
  
He sways suddenly, tottering off his rock perch and tumbling right into the mud. His face snaps up to Seunghyun in total surprise.  
  
"I win," Seunghyun declares, still balancing on his own stone without issue. But Daesung does not react to his taunting, too busy scanning the ground around him in obvious alarm.  
  
Because, as Seunghyun realizes one frantic heartbeat later, something beneath him-- no, all around him-- is _swaying_.  
  
The ground under him seems to shift and tilt, and along with it, so does he. He vaults off the rock he had been balancing on, but still the earth moves as if alive. A spike of panic stabs through him at the look of confusion and fright on Youngbae's face-- and Jiyong's, and Seungri's-- as the three of them backpedal away as fast as they can, away, _away_.  
  
But where is there to go when the very ground under them is no longer safe?  
  
His eyes drop to the hillside beneath him, and to his horror he finds that it's _flowing_. It is far more than just his rock perch as he had hoped-- the terrain around him is violently in motion, a sea of mud and gravel and mounds of sodden grass and fallen leaves all coming alive, churning and collapsing inward and flowing like liquid in one direction.  
  
_Down_.  
  
He does not gasp. He does not even blink. He whips around just as Daesung crashes into him from the side.  
  
"Seunghyun!" Hands grapple with his shoulders, "What's happen--"  
  
Laying both hands flat against the other man, Seunghyun gathers all his strength and shoves _hard_.  
  
The push sends Daesung careening backwards. Seunghyun sees him fall hard on his ass on what looks like-- what he _hopes_ is-- a patch of more solid ground just a short distance away.  
  
That is the last he sees just before he goes under amid a flood of earth and stone.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
They're gone.  
  
Daesung sits alone on the hilltop, sprawled in a heap just feet away from where he watched the ground beneath him come to life and carry his packmates away. The side of the hill has been carved out, what had seemed stable enough only moments ago now sunken in. From solid earth to open air.  
  
They are gone. Just like that. All of them.  
  
A passing breeze ruffles Daesung's damp hair like Seunghyun had done not an hour earlier. He thinks he's going to be sick.  
  
Burned into memory is Seunghyun's fierce expression as he had turned and propelled him to safety, eyes on fire with a single-minded purpose. His last thought, Daesung realizes, had been to protect him. Then the earth took him away, swallowed him up in a river of sand and soil before Daesung could make sense of what he was seeing.  
  
Until recently, until the rains came, this land had thirsted for too long. He did not know it had been hungry as well.  
  
_Lost them in a landslide_ , Seungri had said about his old pack, what feels like an eternity ago. _Got separated. I don't even know if they're still alive._  
  
His heart turns to ice.  
  
Every instinct nested in him, wolf and human alike, screams at him to turn and _run_ , to let his feet pound the earth until he is far from here, to _fly_. This place is unstable. This place is unsafe. This waterlogged hilltop could collapse under him at any moment, and this time there would be no Seunghyun to propel him to safety.  
  
But he has to at least look. He has to know what became of his pack.  
  
Fighting down tremors and a sprinkling of nausea, Daesung inches closer to the newly created ledge. He rolls onto his front and crawls, spreading his weight across as much of the rain-soaked earth as he can to avoid setting in motion a second slide.  
  
At first he sees no one. Just a ravaged hillside, the remains of the hilltop strewn about without thought or care, sticks and rocks and even whole trees with snapped limbs tossed about like the bones of a deer carcass scattered by the local coyotes after another feeding frenzy.  
  
But soon a flicker of movement catches his eye, easy to miss through the curtain of rain. Way down below near the base of it all, from his place among the carnage, someone waves up at him.  
  
"Seunghyun," he breathes, and he has never been happier to see that face that he loves.  
  
The immense relief that floods through Daesung nearly triggers tears. He might be crying already-- who can say, when his face was wet and streaked with rain from the start? He waves back-- a wide, sweeping motion, though it terrifies him to lift even one arm from where his hands are curled into the dirt, claws steadying him.  
  
But there is something off, something peculiar about the way the other man stands. Something strange about the way he leans stiffly to one side, the full burden of his weight on one leg to keep it off the other.  
  
He's injured.  
  
Daesung takes in everything at once. Seunghyun is injured. Seunghyun is _hurt_. The mudslide has left him trapped in a watery pit. It would be difficult to escape with two good legs-- so what are his chances with one bad?  
  
Seunghyun would _crawl_ the length of the slope if it meant making it back to him, this Daesung knows. But to do so would chance further injury, and he cannot let that happen. Out here they can't afford that kind of risk.  
  
Worse still, Seunghyun is parked right up against the base of a rocky outcropping. Daesung squints; even this far away it looks perilous. And judging by the way he eyes the rocks above with distrust, Seunghyun, too, is well aware of the danger that towers over him.  
  
Daesung's heart flutters in revived fear. Falling rocks are no joke. They never give any warning before they strike-- they just _fall_. Fall, and kill.  
  
He wishes he could see the others-- see where they are, if they are okay, if they need help-- but all Daesung sees is Seunghyun, and right now that is enough. His mate is _more_ than enough. He knows what needs to be done.  
  
He is going after him. Seunghyun will to be furious with him, but he is _going after him, damnit_. He will not leave him there. He can't. For a time the earth took him away; now it is up to Daesung to take him back.  
  
Carefully, so carefully, he twists around so that his lower half hangs over the edge. With a breath to ready himself, he drops.  
  
_I'm coming for you_ , he thinks with a courage that surprises him. _Just wait for me. I'll be there soon._  
  
It is a slow and treacherous descent. Here and there he loses his footing and plunges full-tilt into the mud. He climbs to his feet again. Sometimes he hits a soft patch and simply sinks into it, gravity taking him straight down. He works himself into a panic as he flails, struggling to free his submerged legs from the sticky, sucking sludge.  
  
Once this is over, Daesung vows to himself, he is never going out in the rain again.  
  
Yet always, without fail, he pushes to his feet and tries again until at last, short of breath, he breaks free. And from there he continues on, always toward Seunghyun, making progress at a snail's pace.  
  
But then, he reminds himself, any progress is better than no progress at all.  
  
About halfway down the slope he chances a look at the other wolf. The Seunghyun seems livid, as enraged as he expected, gesturing wildly at him in lieu of shouting for fear of triggering another slide, one that would bury them both.  
  
_Go back! Go back!_ Seunghyun tells him with teeth bared and a tail that lashes back and forth behind him, not wagging in play but warning him away. But Daesung will not go back. Even if Seunghyun decides to tear into him as soon as he is within range, Daesung will go to him. He has to.  
  
At last his efforts bring him near enough that Seunghyun does not have to shout to be heard.  
  
"What the _fuck_ are you doing down here? Didn't you see me telling you to go back?" he snarls, a savage sound.  
  
Daesung ignores him and continues his approach.  
  
" _Stop_ ," Seunghyun growls. His tail juts out behind him, the fur bristling all over in warning Daesung has seen one too many times to ignore. "I know you can hear me. _Stop!_ "  
  
And the thing is... Daesung almost does a few times. Seunghyun is terrifying as _fuck_ when he wants to be. If there was not a fear greater than Seunghyun driving him, he would have turned back ages ago. He might not have come down here at all.  
  
He keeps going.  
  
"Go _away!_ Damnit, Daesung, go back! I don't need your help!"  
  
_Yes, you do,_ Daesung does not say, picking his way closer amid an onslaught of abuse as the other wolf tries his damndest to drive him back. _And that's why I'm here now, risking my life for you._  
  
"Come down here and I'll make sure you'll regret it," Seunghyun says with such resolve that Daesung nearly believes him.  
  
"You're not scaring me away, Seunghyun," he says, hoping the meager distance between them is enough to hide the quaver in his voice.  
  
At last they are within reach of each other. Daesung offers up a timid smile, hoping to placate his angry mate. Seunghyun loves his smile.  
  
But Seunghyun isn't smiling. Seunghyun looks ready to _kill_.  
  
He rushes at Daesung, dangerous eyes locked on him with every limping, painful-looking step he takes. An embarrassing squawk leaves Daesung as his neck is grabbed roughly by the scruff and his head is forced down, nails digging savagely into his mud-caked skin-- nails, thank god, not claws. Under Seunghyun's cruel hand all he can do is freeze, an icy dread taking hold and anchoring him in place. He did not think Seunghyun would actually _hurt_ him for coming to his rescue!  
  
But the pain he braces for never comes. Instead, Seunghyun pulls Daesung in and crushes him to himself in a fierce embrace, wrapping him up so tightly in his arms Daesung coughs, all the oxygen squeezed from his lungs.  
  
However, the moment fades fast. Seunghyun jerks back a moment later, and immediately Daesung sucks in the air he had lost.  
  
"I told you not to come after me. I fucking _told_ you," Seunghyun says, all his former anger replaced with pain, his despair an ache that Daesung shares.  
  
"I had to," Daesung replies. "Look, I'm okay! I'm okay." He takes Seunghyun's hands and lays them on himself, encouraging him to feel, to witness firsthand that he is whole and unharmed. "See?"  
  
"I warned you away for a reason. A good reason," Seunghyun says softly, hands roaming, gentler now. "You were supposed to stay up there. Where you were safe, at least."  
  
"Nowhere is safe right now." Daesung chances a look back at the hilltop. "Up there, down here, what does it matter?"  
  
"Better up there than down here. Do you not see the giant rocks hanging over us? Or the water rising around me?"  
  
Daesung shakes hard-- just once, all over. Now that he is here in the thick of it, he is suddenly, acutely aware of the imminent danger he's walked right into. Seunghyun's hands fist in the front of his soiled shirt.  
  
"What happened to the others?"  
  
Daesung hesitates, so Seunghyun continues, "They weren't up there with you?"  
  
He shakes his head.  
  
"Shit, they got caught in it too, then."  
  
He nods.  
  
Seunghyun looks crestfallen. Then, "They'll be fine. Jiyong and Youngbae, I know them, they'll turn up okay. Probably without a scratch on them," he says in a tone that allows for no argument. He has such faith in his packmates because at the core of it all, that is the strength of their pack. Their unfailing belief in each other is the only way they can survive.  
  
"Seungri is missing too," Daesung adds weakly.  
  
Seunghyun frowns. "We'll probably find him with Jiyong and Youngbae." He doesn't sound as confident about that, but Daesung accepts his hopeful optimism gladly.  
  
They stand there for a moment longer, drawing strength from each other as they digest the shock of what they've just survived. And suddenly, as Daesung studies his mate, he spies swimming in Seunghyun's dark eyes what he thinks might be-- is that-- a trace of fear?  
  
It strikes him as strange. Seunghyun, scared. Daesung is unfamiliar with a Seunghyun who lets his fear be seen. But standing here with him, chest to chest and mere inches separating their lips, there is no doubt about it. Seunghyun had been _afraid_.  
  
"Were you afraid I wouldn't come for you?" Daesung blurts out.  
  
"I was afraid you _would_ ," Seunghyun answers, tortured. "And then you _did_. And now we have to climb back out of here, somehow." He gives Daesung a pointed look. "Both of us."  
  
"How's your leg?"  
  
"You'll have to carry me." Seunghyun says it with an expression so sour Daesung almost laughs. He has seen Seunghyun make that face a few times before-- for example, when he has lost a bet and been made to bite into something rotten.  
  
"That bad?" He peers with interest at the limb in question.  
  
"It's my ankle, I think. Twisted or broken, hell if I know. I'll look at it later. All I know is I can't walk on it." Seunghyun leans on Daesung then, giving some of his weight over to him. "You know I would if I could."  
  
"Okay," Daesung says. "Okay. But the rest of you is alright?"  
  
"Seems so."  
  
"You're all scratched up," he notes, running careful hands over Seunghyun's arms and up his neck, then over the sides of his face. Seunghyun catches his hands.  
  
"It's nothing. I get worse from you when we..." He lets out a long, measured breath. "So can you do it? We need to get out of here before those rocks come down and this water comes up."  
  
"I think so."  
  
"You _think_ so?"  
  
Daesung grins and jokes, feeling a little provocative in spite of everything, "Don't worry, Seunghyun. I'm used to having you on my back. Nothing I can't handle."  
  
"This is nothing like that." Not taking the bait then.  
  
"Well, you are kind of heavy."  
  
"I'll show you _heavy_ when we get back." Ah, there he is, the Seunghyun he feared he had lost.  
  
"With that leg?" Daesung perks up and bounces in place-- or he would, if only his mud prison would allow it, nearly up to his knees in the stuff. "Does this mean I get to be on top?"  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"Until your leg is healed, I mean."  
  
"Only if by 'on top' you mean that you'll be riding my cock while I lie back and watch you do all the work." With that, Seunghyun cups his face in two mud-covered hands and pulls him into a sloppy kiss, bringing Daesung's face to his so quickly Daesung cannot prevent their teeth from clacking together painfully upon meeting-- upon _colliding_. He mewls, a faint sound, when sharp teeth scrape over his lip and sting the soft skin, but still the kiss deepens, traces of mud mixing with saliva as Seunghyun's tongue pushes between Daesung's parted lips in a lewd imitation of what he intends to do to him later once they are safely home.  
  
A sudden crackling and the hiss of gravel down the cliff's face above them drags them apart. Seunghyun pants harshly, "All teasing aside, we really need to get out of here."  
  
"Yeah," Daesung breathes, a little dazed himself, and licks the taste of Seunghyun from his lips. "Anyway, I was just joking earlier. You know that, right? I can do it. I can carry us."  
  
It may as well be a promise. He will not let Seunghyun down.  
  
He offers Seunghyun his back and goes to his knees while the other climbs on. Of course, it goes about as well as can be expected; Seunghyun slips and a second later drops squarely onto Daesung's back, nearly sending him face first into the mud.  
  
"Ow, _careful_ ," Daesung complains, heart pounding all over again.  
  
"Sorry," Seunghyun mutters. "Hold _still_."  
  
"I'm trying!"  
  
"No, you're-- quit squirming!"  
  
"I'm trying not to eat mud here," Daesung whines, struggling to find purchase in the slop while Seunghyun hooks legs over his arms. "Here, just-- give me your leg. Okay, now the other. Arms around my--" Two arms looping around his throat and squeezing cut him off.  
  
" _Too tight_ ," he chokes. The arms let up a little, and Daesung can breathe again.  
  
There. Finally.  
  
Laboring to his feet again, this time loaded down with Seunghyun's added weight, Daesung tries not to think too hard about the task ahead of him. Bearing Seunghyun on his back is never easy... and now he has to do it uphill in the mud.  
  
He bows his head and hoists Seunghyun higher on his back. He can do this.  
  
"Drop me if you need to," he hears against his ear. "If those rocks come down, you put me down and _run_."  
  
"You're crazy. I'm not dropping you."  
  
"And I'm not _losing_ you. Not here, not like this," Seunghyun growls right into his ear so loudly Daesung flinches in pain and almost _does_ drop him right then and there. "Fuck, Daesung, you're the crazy one for coming down after me."  
  
_Not crazy_ , Daesung thinks, _just hopelessly in love._  
  
The trek uphill is a long and arduous one, during which Seunghyun falls silent and lets him work. Daesung must halt every so often to catch his breath, arms and legs trembling with fatigue, sheer willpower keeping him on his feet and advancing even as his strength leaves him one breath at a time, the mud and the mist and the man on his back sapping it out of him with every straining step.  
  
He is fit and strong, he knows this, but... even he has his limits.  
  
Back at the top of the hill, Daesung feels near collapse. The instant Seunghyun slides off of him he does just that, his legs giving out under him, weak and spent-- he is sure he could not stand a moment longer, not even if his life or Seunghyun depended on it. He had reached his limit. And this time he does not want Seunghyun to push him beyond it.  
  
But Seunghyun doesn't let him fall. He spins Daesung around to pull him into another kiss, this one gentle and meant to soothe, overflowing with love and gratitude.  
  
It says _you did well_ and _thank you_ and, above all, _I love you so much, too much to keep to myself and so I share it with you, this burden of my love._  
  
Daesung will shoulder that burden any day, in any way, for any reason, anytime Seunghyun asks it of him and even when he doesn't. He will bear it across his back as he has done for Seunghyun today, and after, when the dust has settled and the rains cease to fall, he will hold that love dear in his heart.  
  
All of this Daesung will do with a strength he did not know he had, the bond between them empowering him in ways he never could have anticipated.  
  
It is Seunghyun who starts the kiss, and Seunghyun who separates them. Because for now, Daesung lacks the energy to do anything more than go along with it.  
  
"Still can't believe you came after me," he murmurs, lips brushing Daesung's as he speaks.  
  
"Believe it," Daesung says with a very tired smile. Seunghyun holds him close, one hand around his back to support him and the other cradling his face in a way that never fails to make Daesung feel sheltered, secure, safely out of harm's way. For a fleeting moment it feels as if _he_ is the one who was just saved, lifted from the grave and granted the freedom to go on living a little longer.  
  
In a way he was. Daesung's heart would die with Seunghyun. What life would he have without him?

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
For a time they rest. The rest and they wait and they regain their strength. The rain slows to a fine mist and time seems to slow while, from their vantage point atop the hill, they search for signs-- any signs at all-- of their missing family.  
  
Seunghyun rolls up his pant leg and pokes curiously at his ankle, the skin swollen and already dark with heavy bruising. He tries flexing it and ends up hissing in pain.  
  
Daesung watches this with a sinking heart. "Think it's broken?"  
  
"Can't say yet," Seunghyun says, stroking the skin with a softer touch now. "God, I hope not. That would be just my luck, to get caught in the mud and come out with a broken fucking ankle."  
  
A faint sound sound of distress from below has them both sitting up suddenly and peering around anxiously. Seunghyun moves to the ledge on hands and knees to search the slope with worried eyes; Daesung follows, alarm rising at the continued sound of what he soon realizes is a familiar voice.  
  
"Help!" it cries. "Hello? Is anyone out there?"  
  
"Seungri," they gasp together.  
  
Squinting, Daesung nearly misses him where he is stranded in the mud far below. However, unlike Seunghyun, he seems firmly encased in it, his entire lower half stuck in the thick muck. He is covered in the stuff all over, face and hair alike. Daesung wonders if he was completely under it at some point and has only just managed to claw his way to the surface.  
  
The thought sends a fresh bolt of terror through Daesung, his skin prickling in the aftermath of it. _Suffocation_ is among his greatest fears. But to be _buried alive_...  
  
He can't imagine it. He _won't_ imagine it.  
  
His eyes squeeze shut in resolve, clawed fingers digging into the wet soil under him with a disgusting squelching sound. Seungri was swept about the same distance as Seunghyun, but in another direction, owing at least in part to why he had missed him the first time around. Yet, to his dismay, Daesung sees that the same rocky outcropping that had threatened Seunghyun looms ominously over Seungri. All around the younger wolf are scattered stones-- carried down in the landslide or slowly crumbling off the wall above after, Daesung cannot say.  
  
He cannot say, but still he knows what needs to be done. Even if with all his heart he does not want to do it.  
  
"What are you _doing?_ " Seunghyun says, grappling with Daesung as he lowers himself over the edge for the second time that day.  
  
"I have to," Daesung says in a rush, adrenaline spiking at the fight he knows they are about to have. He has done it once. He can do it again.  
  
"No," Seunghyun says sternly. " _No._ "  
  
"I have to. He has no one else, Seunghyun!"  
  
" _No!_ " Seunghyun shouts, and Daesung can't help it-- he cowers. Looking as wrecked as he sounds, Seunghyun continues, "No, you don't. You don't _have_ to do anything. Stay."  
  
"I can't!" Daesung cries, finding it suddenly impossible to meet his eyes. "You're hurt. Jiyong and Youngbae are... We don't know where they are or if they're even--" _alive_ , the word flits by like a wasp and stings just as sharply, "--if they're even okay. Seungri needs someone. Right now I'm probably the only one who can help him."  
  
"Which is why I want you to stay _here_ , with me," Seunghyun tries reasoning with him again. "You're all I've got right now. After this you might be all I--" He takes Daesung by the hand in a white-knuckled grip. "I can't lose you too."  
  
It hits Daesung like a blow to the gut. He can't move, can't speak, stunned into stillness and silence.  
  
...until another distressed cry from Seungri, faint and far away sounding, shocks him out of his stupor.  
  
"We can't just leave him down there."  
  
"Don't go."  
  
"What if those rocks come down on him? What then?"  
  
"Don't do this, Daesung."  
  
"Don't make me choose!" Daesung cries, so close to caving, too close to giving in and giving Seunghyun what he wants like he always does.  
  
...But at what cost? What if that wall does come down like he fears? Can he really turn his back on Seungri and leave him to die? Daesung would never forgive himself. Since the day they met he and Seungri have had their disagreements-- they still do-- but Seungri is one of theirs all the same. His life is worth no less than Daesung's, no less than any of theirs, and he deserves just as much a chance at life as the rest of them. Isn't that conviction at the core of their close-knit pack? Isn't that the what it means for them to be a family?  
  
He might not succeed. He might even die trying, and the thought alone scares Daesung half to death. But he has to at least try.  
  
"But you are choosing!" Seunghyun cries right back at him, voice and volume spiraling out of control. "You go down there and you are making a choice. You're choosing _him_ over _me_."  
  
Daesung feels like he has heard this before, weeks prior when Seungri accused him of much the same thing. Back then Daesung had chosen something over Seungri; he had chosen fear. All of them had.  
  
Well, today he rejects fear, rejects it and forgets he ever courted it. Today he chooses Seungri.  
  
"Seunghyun," Daesung says, pouring his heart into it as he makes a solemn promise. "I love _you_. And when forced to choose between you and anyone else, I will always choose you. This doesn't change that." He touches fingers to the fine bones of Seunghyun's strong hand. "But I have to do this."  
  
"Don't go. Don't fucking go back down there. Please," Seunghyun says, pleading with him for what is perhaps the first time since their life together began.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
" _Don't_."  
  
"I have to," Daesung repeats, hating how his voice shrinks, and with that he lets go. He lowers himself down and tries his best to focus on reaching Seungri, on placing one tired foot in front of the other. Anything to forget the memory of Seunghyun's fingers falling from his arm as he slips away, out of reach.  
  
It is the hardest thing he has ever done, leaving.  
  
By the time Daesung makes it to Seungri's side quite some time later, the other boy appears to have given up, head pillowed on his arms as he-- what, rests? Wallows in self-pity? Succumbs to fear? Daesung frowns, all of the above leaving him feeling bruised inside. Seungri must not have seen him coming.  
  
"Seungri," he says, a bit out of breath already, the hike down taking out of him what little he had regained. A small voice inside worries about what this means for the return trip.  
  
Seungri's head snaps up.  
  
"Daesung!" he cries, squinting at him through the mud in his eyes.  
  
"Shhh," Daesung hushes him, a finger flying to his lips. "Keep it down. These rocks--"  
  
"They've been falling all around me," Seungri babbles, panicked, "And I'm stuck, I can't get out-- my legs--"  
  
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Daesung puts forth his best effort to calm him. "Come on, I'll pull you out. Take my hand."  
  
"Where are the others?"  
  
"We don't know." Daesung uses his shirt to wipe at the slime coating Seungri's hand, hoping a cleaner hand will make for a better connection... but it makes little difference. The shirt was a muddy mess to start with.  
  
"We?"  
  
"Seunghyun and me." He nods toward the hilltop. "He's up there, keeping an eye on us. Hurt his leg. He would be down here with me otherwise."  
  
_He would be down here **instead of** me_ , Daesung thinks, but keeps it to himself. Under more normal circumstances, he would not be the pack's first choice for a rescue mission.  
  
"Surprised he let go of you long enough for you to make it down here," Seungri says without a trace of hostility, which Daesung is grateful for.  
  
"He--" Daesung's lips twist in thought. "Yeah. Just... took a little convincing."  
  
"Convincing," Seungri echoes, always the skeptic.  
  
"He was a little grumpy. He'll be fine." Daesung takes Seungri firmly by the hand. "Now let's do this."  
  
And so he tries, first with Seungri's hands clasped in his, then with Seungri's hands clamped over his wrist, then with his hands locked around Daesung's upper arm. When that doesn't work, Seungri wraps arms around Daesung's hips while Daesung pulls like a work horse harnessed to a plow. No matter what they try their progress is weak, Seungri succeeding in pulling Daesung _down_ more than Daesung succeeds at pulling him _up_.  
  
Meanwhile, through all their efforts Daesung feels Seunghyun's eyes on them, watching like a hawk from above.  
  
"I don't understand," Seungri whimpers after Daesung has collapsed beside him, desperately needing a moment to recover. "It's just mud. Why is this so hard?"  
  
"I'm doing the best I can," Daesung snaps, his characteristic good humor wearing thin.  
  
"I wasn't blaming you," Seungri clarifies. "I just. I wish the others were here too."  
  
"Yeah, well, me too," Daesung mutters. If the others could be here right now, helping him help Seungri, they'd have been up again and on their way home long ago, he is sure of it. He peers up at the wall before them-- at the wet sand cementing the massive rocks together, packed earth now turned to mud-- and wonders how much time they really have.  
  
"I just can't believe this happened again," Seungri says, defeated. "It's like my old pack all over again."  
  
"No." Daesung lurches to his feet. Wipes muddy hands on muddy pants. "It's not the same because we didn't get separated. Not all of us, anyway." Though Seungri probably would not have minded a little separation from him. Or a lot. Like, permanently.  
  
Seungri doesn't appear convinced, so Daesung crouches down before the other boy and looks him dead in the eye.  
  
"We'll find them. Just like I found Seunghyun, and then I found you."  
  
Seungri stares ahead, unseeing. "How can you say that when..."  
  
"Have faith, Seungri. Believe in your packmates. And don't you stop believing in them until you've see with your own eyes, without a doubt, that they can't be brought back to you." Daesung has just learned this, himself. He learned it from Seungri. "There is always a chance."  
  
"Those are bold words," Seungri grunts. "And so much easier said than done."  
  
It is hard, but Daesung cracks a smile. He says again, "There is _always_ a chance."  
  
"Until there isn't."  
  
"Until there isn't," Daesung says soberly. "But we haven't reached that point yet. So get ready to stand up and walk again, because one way or another, I'm getting you out of here."  
  
He takes a long look at their surroundings until he finds the tools he seeks. Then he goes to collect them, a plan forming with each step.  
  
"Wait, where are you going?" Seungri asks as he goes. "Don't leave me!"  
  
Daesung turns and feels struck by the fear of abandonment shining bright in the other wolf's eyes. His heart goes out to Seungri in a way that, until today, he never thought it would.  
  
He and Seungri have so much healing ahead of them, don't they?  
  
"I'll be right back. I'm not going far," Daesung calls out as he gathers up an armful of broken limbs and branches jutting out of the mud, pointing straight at the sky. Wreckage from the landslide that he hopes to use to his advantage.  
  
He returns to where Seungri waits and sets about arranging the limbs on the ground before him, fashioning a crude platform. He will stand on this while he works to free Seungri. Maybe, he thinks, just maybe it will be enough. Maybe now they will finally get somewhere as he works at pulling Seungri up from his mud prison. Maybe now he will not simply _sink_.  
  
Just as Daesung is offering Seungri his arm again, there is a sound like thunder overhead. He looks sharply to the sky, to the rocky overhang above, and sees a shower of stones, small but sharp and coming at them fast like hail in a storm.  
  
Faster than he can think Daesung drops to the ground and throws himself over Seungri, reminding tired arms to shield his own head at the last moment-- just as the rubble rains down around them.  
  
He thinks he hears Seunghyun's voice, far away.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
It's over in seconds.  
  
Once everything has quieted Daesung sits up, taking stock of himself in the stillness. He feels a bit scratched up and stung, small cuts from sharp rocks smarting, but otherwise okay.  
  
He just hopes Seungri won't notice his shivering, little tremors of residual fear that he can't seem to contain.  
  
"Shit," Seungri says, seeming dazed. Dazed but unhurt, Daesung notes gladly. "You... you didn't have to do that."  
  
"We got lucky," Daesung replies, reaching down again to help Seungri up. "Come on, let's get out of here before something bigger comes at us."  
  
"Your arm," Seungri says. He stares with wide eyes up the length of his left arm.  
  
It is only then that Daesung notices it, the blood streaming down his arm. The source of it is three cuts, short in diameter but deep and bleeding heavily. Two above the elbow and one below, halfway up and halfway down.  
  
"Oh." Even as his tremors grow, Daesung snorts in amusement. This marks the second time he has bled for Seungri.  
  
The very next moment he shakes the thought away, banishing it to the blackness of his mind. He had not felt the lacerations when they were made, and he does not feel them now. His heart races and his body quakes, adrenaline pumping through him and numbing him to pain. He feels fine. There is nothing to slow him down.  
  
It's time to _go_.  
  
His contraption works. It takes a few tries, Seungri's already slick hands straining to hold on, fingers and palms slipping on his blood mixed with mud, turning his injured arm a revolting blend of red and brown.  
  
But they get the job done in the end, and that is all that matter. Success is theirs, and Seungri is soon free and standing once again on his own two feet. Daesung steps back, gives him a once-over.  
  
"Do you need me to carry you?"  
  
"What?" Seungri sends him an odd look. "No, I'm good now. I can walk."  
  
"That was a joke." At least, Daesung had meant it as a joke. Had Seungri _actually_ needed to be carried, Daesung would have dropped where he stood, would have just plunged into the mud and been done with it.  
  
"I'm glad you can still joke at a time like this," Seungri says, this time sharing with him a shy smile. "But you've done enough. More than enough. Thank you," he says, and it's so packed with sweet sincerity Daesung almost asks through his fatigue, _who are you and what have you done with the real Seungri?_  
  
He summons up a weak smile.  
  
"I'm glad you're okay," Daesung says in reply, and... now this is getting awkward.  
  
"Yeah, me too." Seungri looks him up and down, worried eyes pausing on his arm, which still bleeds freely. "Are you?"  
  
"I'm okay," Daesung says automatically. "It looks worse than it is." He doesn't know that, but he is determined not to look at it too closely. That kind of scrutiny can wait until the two of them are back on higher ground, safe and sound.  
  
And so together they go, and by the time they arrive Daesung is _thrilled_ \-- or would be if he had the energy-- to see that while he was with Seungri, Jiyong and Youngbae have made it back as well. They are as dirty and bedraggled and shot through with exhaustion as the rest of them, but aside from that they appear no worse for the wear.  
  
Daesung sways with relief.  
  
So they have all survived. Every one of them is intact and alive. The realization crashes over Daesung like the first rush of wind before a storm, taking with it the very last of his strength. Wobbling on weak legs, he nudges Seungri toward Jiyong, who flutters toward them.  
  
He takes Seungri from Daesung and pats him down, checking with thorough hands for obvious hurts like deep lacerations and broken bones. Seungri stands obediently still for a change and lets their leader look him over, seeming simultaneously pleased and embarrassed.  
  
Finding nothing major, Jiyong sighs in relief. "Thank you," he says to Daesung. "Thank you for going after him, and for bringing him back safe. You still surprise me sometimes." Then, that familiar fondness shifting into concern, "But-- your arm--"  
  
"It's fine. I'm fine," Daesung says, but the next thing he knows his knees are buckling, and he is sagging against Seunghyun who is there to catch him, even with his bad leg, and then he is on the ground and he's not sure how he got there. Seunghyun props him up with careful hands.  
  
" _Fine_ , you say. You're a little less than fine at the moment," Seunghyun says with such warmth, "but you'll be okay again soon. You're just tired."  
  
"Just tired," Daesung says distantly.  
  
"Think you can make it back? Sorry I can't return the favor from earlier."  
  
"Do I need to carry you again?" Daesung asks, aiming for funny but landing somewhere closer to just plain worn out. He sounds exactly as weary as he feels.  
  
Seunghyun does not reply, only grins and ruffles his damp hair, no doubt muddying it up further.  
  
"God, I'm so tired," Daesung groans.  
  
"Yes." The ruffling turns to petting. "But you did it."  
  
"Bet you're upset with me, huh."  
  
"...I was," Seunghyun says, reluctance visible on his face and in the stiff set of his shoulders. "But you made it back, and you brought Seungri up with you. You did a good thing."  
  
"So..."  
  
"So I'm letting it go. I'll get over it."  
  
Daesung smiles.  
  
"Although your arm is..."  
  
"It's just cuts. Looks worse than it is."  
  
Still, Seunghyun catches the rain, now very light, in a cupped hand and uses what little he collects to dribble water over Daesung's wounds, clearing away the grime for a better look.  
  
"They're deep," he says after a brief inspection. "They'll probably scar."  
  
"Whatever. I've had worse," Daesung says, yawning. _Like what Seungri gave me_ , the thought comes unbidden.  
  
Before he can give that further thought, however, Daesung hears a familiar ear-splitting crack and the low rolling of thunder from somewhere behind him. He is too spent to care, and certainly too spent to react, utterly emptied of all his energy. If lightning strikes him where he sits, so be it. Can't outrun lightning, anyway.  
  
Seunghyun taps him. "Daesung, look."  
  
With great effort Daesung forces open his eyes and cranes his head around to follow Seunghyun's pointing finger. It points down the ruined hillside that he has traversed the length of four times today-- twice down and twice back up. God, just _looking_ at it makes him feel faint.  
  
Where he and Seungri had just been there lie crumpled sheets of stone, and a cloud of dust floating leisurely into the air.  
  
The rock wall has fallen, the boulders of the overhang crushing and burying everything beneath it under a mound of rubble.  
  
It is both fear and awe that Daesung sees on his packmates' faces as they peer down at the sight. And even as lethargic as he feels, ready to sleep for days, for the rest of the _season_ if the other will let him-- what was that about wolves not hibernating?-- Daesung doesn't miss how Seungri's eyes find his, wide with shock as he realizes the fate he has just escaped.  
  
Their eyes lock for only a moment. This time though, this time Seungri shakes free first, gaze drawn back to the ruins far below.  
  
Daesung turns and nuzzles into Seunghyun, too damn tired to feel much of anything but the lullaby of sleep, its sweet song irresistible. "Can I just sleep?"  
  
"Here? Now?" Seunghyun brushes the hair from his eyes to get a good look at him.  
  
"Mmhmm."  
  
"You can take a short nap I think," Seunghyun says. "But not for long. We do need to get back and I doubt anyone will be carrying you. Afraid you're gonna have to walk yourself home under your own power."  
  
_Power_ , Daesung thinks. That's a funny word right now. He doesn't seem to have any of that left.  
  
He hums to let Seunghyun know he has been heard, eyes drifting shut again and blocking out his packmates' excited chatter.  
  
"Sleep, Daesung," Seunghyun rumbles warmly, keeping him upright with an uncommonly gentle touch.  
  
He can do that. Without further ado, using the other's shoulder as a pillow, Daesung gives himself over to some much-needed sleep.

 

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

 

 

 

When Daesung wakes he wakes all at once, stretching in contentment under Seunghyun's hands like a cat basking in the sun. Seunghyun presses his nose into his hair, now clean and dry, and breathes in the scent of him.  
  
This? This is home.  
  
"You're awake?" he asks, smoothing a hand over Daesung's arm. His fingers catch on the edges of yet more crudely wrapped bandages-- little more than scraps of fabric, really. Just something to keep the cuts clean and dry while they close up.  
  
"Barely... but yes," Daesung says in a voice thick with sleep. "I'm so _sore_. How long was I out? "  
  
"I bet," Seunghyun purrs and cuddles-- yes, _cuddles_ \-- up to his warm, naked body. Naked nights are usually reserved for summertime, but after what they'd just been through, nothing but his mate's bare skin on his would do.  
  
He continues, "And you haven't been out long. Just since yesterday. We've all been sleeping, actually." Because after what they've just survived, Seunghyun thinks they deserve to take it easy for a little while. A little rest and relaxation never hurt anyone.  
  
All except for Youngbae, who had dragged himself up and out and had come back with something small for them all to share: birds that Seunghyun hadn't bothered to identify before digging in, feathers littering the floor around him.  
  
Daesung fidgets for a bit, hips twitching and legs rubbing together. His face pinches up in concentration, as if trying to gauge something. Seunghyun is about to ask what the hell he's doing when he hears a quiet, "Did you...?"  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"While I was sleeping," Daesung says, squirming again, seeming focused on something. "Did you... you know." He pushes his ass back against Seunghyun in a way he can't possibly misinterpret.  
  
Seunghyun blinks, surprised. "No. Why?"  
  
Daesung hums, and to Seunghyun it sounds strangely... well, _disappointed_.  
  
"You missed your chance."  
  
 "I-- what?"  
  
Daesung rolls over to face Seunghyun, sighing at sore muscles, and catches his lips in a kiss that manages to be both playful and drowsy. "I don't think I would have woken up for anything, not even that. You could have. Why didn't you?"  
  
"I wanted to let you rest." When Youngbae had come in with his catch, intent on waking Daesung to eat what he had brought, however meager, Seunghyun had stood in the way of it. With teeth bared and a few choice words, he had run Youngbae off.  
  
_He can eat later_ , he had growled. _Just let him sleep_.  
  
"But you're awake now, so..." Seunghyun nips at his ear. Then his jaw, then neck, then collar, steadily working his way down and settling further over Daesung as he goes.  
  
"I'm too sore," Daesung protests. "Can you believe it? Sore, and you haven't even fucked me yet."  
  
"You're sore there too?" He presses a finger to Daesung's hole, gives it a rub. "Here?"  
  
"Not there, but--" Daesung rolls his hips back, back arching before Seunghyun beautifully, bearing down on his hand. "--but I want to be."  
  
Seunghyun tests the other's body, rubs from his hole to his balls and back just to feel the shiver that results. He doesn't penetrate, not yet-- he wants to tease and play with him a little longer before he goes there-- but Seunghyun can feel the give, the way Daesung's skin dips under searching fingers.  His cock stirs from sleep and strains at the front of his shorts, pointing directly at where it wants to be.  
  
Daesung does not have to do anything more than exist to excite him like this. Exist, and grant him access to explore.  
  
"Maybe what I need to do," Seunghyun growls, arousal turning his voice deep, "is fuck it out of you."  
  
"Help me work out the kinks?"  
  
"Mmhmm."  
  
"I'd take you up on that, if I didn't feel like I might pass out again any moment." He sounds sheepish as he says, "You would never let me live it down. You'd be so offended."  
  
"You won't fall asleep, Daesung. I'll make sure of that." Seunghyun grins obscenely. "You don't have to do much."  
  
So the other wolf hums in satisfaction and settles in, arching his back to make his ass available to Seunghyun again.  
  
"Okay if I knot you too?" Seunghyun eyes the curve of his spine, the slant of his hips as he all but begs to be filled.  
  
Daesung moans, "Please do. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."  
  
Perfect. That's just how Seunghyun likes him.  
  
"Oh!" Daesung starts suddenly. "Wait, your leg--"  
  
"It's okay, it's okay! I can do this," Seunghyun insists, pushing him back down. Because it is okay. The bruising on his ankle certainly _looks_ gruesome enough, but already the pain has begun to subside so long as he stays off it. He's optimistic about his recovery.  
  
And anyway, he will not need to call on it much for what he has planned. Today will be a gentle fuck, a calmer, more careful coupling than their usual, he decides. It's the best he can do for now. He doesn't think Daesung will mind.  
  
"Thought I was supposed to do the work while your injury heals," Daesung teases.  
  
"Later. You've worked hard enough." _Just let me take care of you._ "Now lie down and let me."  
  
Daesung does, and Seunghyun sets to work softening up those sore, overworked muscles of his until he lies pliant under him and panting with need, pleading with him to _please, just put it in_. But he does not _need_ to speak for Seunghyun to know what he needs from him, not really. Because Seunghyun has dwelled here for years, learning this man inside and out with every tool at his disposal, his marks on Daesung's skin like footsteps worn into the floor. He knows him like the back of his own hand. Daesung invites him in often enough.  
  
Seunghyun has made his home here. _Right. Here._

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
Something changes.  
  
Daesung feels the shift like a change in the wind. Daesung can't quite put his finger on it, this new direction, but he senses it all the same. It feels like a fresh start. Like a wall that stood between them has come crashing down.  
  
But there will be no rebuilding, not this time. This time they clear away the rubble and meet in the middle, ready to know each other at last.  
  
He still catches Seungri watching him some days, but not with the  he has come to expect. Eyes once green with envy are now colored with some other emotion, one Daesung had all but given up hope of ever seeing from the other boy.  
  
Admiration. Recognition. _Respect_.  
  
It is possible that he is imagining it, but Daesung can't help it, how he preens every time he catches Seungri looking. At the very least, he no longer feels the need to turn tail and run to escape the weight of it. _That_ had really been wearing on him.  
  
"Hey, Daesung," he hears one day.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
Seungri glances down and scuffs his shoe against the ground absent-mindedly. It's hesitant in a way he usually isn't. "Remember when you were going on about fruits and berries? How you wished you could try them?" Quickly, he adds, "I know it was a long time ago."  
  
Daesung has to think about it-- _really_ think about it-- before the memory comes back to him, a little tattered and fading around the edges already. He remembers the coyotes and he remembers Seungri. The conversation leading up to it all is a little harder to reach.  
  
"That was _ages_ ago," he says when it finally comes back to him.  
  
"Yeah, well," Seungri purses his lips and mutters, "I've tried 'em. I said they were nothing special, remember when I said that? Wanna know how I know?"  
  
"Sure." Daesung blinks. He wonders where this is even coming from. Seungri takes a deep breath.  
  
"My old pack-- the one that brought me here. When I first joined they made me eat a few of those wild plums you're so curious about. An initiation of sorts." Staring Daesung solemnly in the eye, he says, "Don't ever do it. I never want to see you get like that."  
  
Daesung stares back at him in horror. "What happened?"  
  
"What do you think? I was sick for days. Or it felt like days. They brought me water so I wouldn't die of thirst, but..." He shrugs, doing his best to appear nonchalant, though Daesung sees how the memory hurts him.  
  
But if that's the case, then _why is he telling him this?_ The Seungri he knows would never reveal something that makes him seem vulnerable. Like most wolves, he would guard his weakness as fiercely as a she-wolf protecting her pups-- with his _life_.  
  
"The idea was that if I survived, I was strong enough to join the pack."  
  
"Why are you telling me this?"  
  
Seungri shrugs, and it's so casual Daesung can't stand it. "Just felt like I needed to."  
  
Unsure how to respond, Daesung settles for touching the other boy's arm gently, fingers resting on a thin wrist.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"Don't be. It's fine. I'm still alive, aren't I?" Seungri works up a grin for him. "Just glad you guys didn't put me through the same thing."  
  
"We wouldn't. We would never," Daesung states boldly. That's just cruel. "Not to you or anyone else. That's awful." Suddenly he feels a lot less like they coerced Seungri away from his old pack. He thinks they might have _rescued_ him.  
  
"Well... Thanks. For giving me a chance. Even after..."  
  
Daesung smiles, not unkindly. "Let's just forget that ever happened. I won't bring it up again if you won't. Agreed?"  
  
"Gladly," Seungri says, seeming grateful. He sniffs and rolls his shoulders, sliding back into his usual cool like shrugging on a well-worn coat.  
  
And _there_ is the Seungri he has known all these months, Daesung thinks, relieved. But there is a hint of smug satisfaction there too. He knew something softer lay under that stony exterior, just waiting to be reached.  
  
Now if only Seunghyun had been here to see it...  
  
"I've been thinking, Seungri," Daesung says, lifting his chin and looking Seungri over appreciatively, "And you're tougher than I thought. I was wrong to call you weak. You're not weak at all."  
  
_You're just protecting yourself in the only way you know how._  
  
"I know," Seungri says, and Daesung can't help it. He _laughs_.  
  
Seungri makes a face at him. "What?"  
  
"Nothing, you're just... You're really something else, you know?" Daesung says, his smile secretive. He knows to expect this kind of arrogance from Seungri by now, he _does_. But Seungri, Daesung suspects, will always find a way to surprise him. Not unlike Seunghyun.  
  
"Okay... Well, I also wanted to say-- and this is really hard, okay? I'm sorry about being such a dick to you all these months," Seungri forces out. "You're uh, you're pretty tough, yourself."  
  
"Ah," Daesung replies, a bit shyly, "But I've been no angel, either."  
  
"I underestimated you."  
  
"You and everyone else." That is his problem, isn't it? His image. Daesung thinks he should probably work on that.  
  
"I'm gonna do better," Seungri insists, "I promise."  
  
He holds out a hand, and for a moment Daesung dives into another memory, a memory of a day just shy of one year ago when he and Seungri had joined hands for the first time. How Daesung had not trusted him back then! How suspicious he had been, how wary! It's difficult to assign those same feelings to the boy who stands before him now.  
  
Within the context of their pack, Seungri is a work in progress, that's for sure. But he means well, and Daesung is willing to give him another chance.  
  
Their hands connect and that's that.  
  
"So, uh," Seungri starts, suddenly a little bashful. "Have you eaten?"  
  
There is no stopping the joyous smile that bursts open across Daesung's face-- and why would he want to, anyway? Now that they are finally getting somewhere.  
  
"I have," he says, patting his stomach with an open palm, "But I could eat again. I can _always_ eat. And-- oh yeah!" he shouts, startling Seungri. "There's somewhere I want to take you. Something I need to show you. Come on!"  
  
He grabs Seungri by the wrist and leads him to a very special landmark, one that Seungri _needs_ to see.  
  
He takes him to Dick Rock. After all, he has a very important question for him.  
  
"You're kidding," Seungri says, gaping up at the thing. "You are so fucking with me right now, aren't you?"  
  
Daesung shoves at him playfully. "What? What's not to believe? It's right there in front of you!"  
  
"You guys made this somehow, didn't you. There's no way nature made this!"  
  
Daesung shrieks with laughter, because that is, of course, exactly what he had said to Seunghyun.  
  
"Oh, it's all-natural," Daesung says and waggles his eyebrows for effect. For once Seungri is the one left looking flabbergasted, struck speechless for perhaps the first time since they met. Daesung takes the opportunity to pass on to Seungri what Seunghyun had shared with him, lists off the landmark's various names given by Jiyong, Youngbae, Seunghyun, and, well... Daesung is still working on his.  
  
"So," he says, hands on his hips as he stands back and regards the rock with something like reverence. "Very important question: what would you call it?"  
  
"Hmmm." Seungri cradles his chin in thought.  
  
"Think _long and hard_ before answering."  
  
"Yeah?" Seungri says, and the way he looks at him does things to Daesung, things he might need to give greater thought to later, things he might need to _do_ something about.  
  
Sex on the brain. Giant phallic object standing solidly before him. It's a winning combination. "Make it good because this is going to get back to the others. One name per packmate."  
  
Seungri gazes up at the rock in wonder. His lower lip pokes out in a pout as he loses himself to the creative process, and to Daesung's growing frustration it manages to be both cute _and_ sexy. At the compulsion that rolls over him he sways in surprise, a dangerous appetite waking. He wants to take those pouty lips between his and kiss the other boy senseless.  
  
If he is perfectly honest with himself, he wants to do a lot more than that.  
  
Seungri snaps his fingers, startling Daesung out of his daydream.  
  
"I've got it! It's perfect."  
  
"Yeah, and?" Daesung says, a little hot and bothered. He crosses his legs and tugs his shirt down a smidge, aiming for discreet but not sure why he bothers. Seungri will be able to smell his interest anyway-- if he doesn't already.  
  
"Well, it's very... It's proud, isn't it?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And so inspiring," Seungri says, more than a bit awed.  
  
"Yes..."  
  
Seungri eyes him with what Daesung thinks is, at a minimum, a hint of interest. "And right now you're..."  
  
Daesung resists the urge to fidget under that stare, hotter and heavier than he has ever seen it when aimed at _him_. "What? I'm what?"  
  
"Its... nothing." Seungri shrugs as if shaking something off. "I've definitely got a name for this big guy though."  
  
"Alright, just spit it out already!" Daesung laughs, borderline hysterical by now. The suspense is _killing_ him.  
  
He deeply regrets not bringing Seunghyun along. It's still hard for him to get around at times, his ankle needing just a little more time to heal. He would be having the time of his life right now looking on as Seungri interprets this... this work of art.  
  
Seungri half turns to him and announces, his face the embodiment of masculine pride and mischievous youth: "Victory."  
  
"Victory," Daesung says. Goddamnit, he was _wrong_.  
  
"Yes. Victory!" Seungri cheers, throwing his arms open wide, everything about it so damn theatrical Daesung cannot contain himself any longer. Like a bubble popping, his composure bursts, and he folds against Seungri in a fit of giggles.  
  
But Seungri, with his slighter build, cannot hold their combined weight, and they go down together. They hit the dirt in a tangled heap, all knees and elbows and wagging tails as they succumb to shared laughter, too long overdue.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
The weight of an unfamiliar body draped over his side leads Daesung slowly from sleep.  
  
Strange, that even before his eyes have opened he knows the body on his does not belong to Seunghyun. He knows Seunghyun's body, knows his mate's weight and shape so intimately he falls asleep wrapped up in it and wakes up just the same.  
  
Before Seunghyun, Daesung never knew the value of being a heavy sleeper.  
  
Sharing a bed-- if what they have can be called that-- with the other wolf is a challenge at best, Seunghyun clinging to him through the night like a parasite. Daesung is an early riser, waking with the sun. Seunghyun is not. Rarely does he surrender Daesung to the frigid air outside their cozy nest without a fight.  
  
Most days this involves strong arms and long legs caging him, sharp canines stabbing into the slope of his shoulder until Daesung yields and resigns himself to staying just a little longer, warm and closely held. Other days it involves Seunghyun taking his hip sharply in hand, dragging him back onto his fattened cock again and again, jarring every inch of Daesung fiercely awake. He whimpers quietly into folded arms and hooks a leg over Seunghyun's, up and back, opening himself to his mate further as a familiar heat floods him.  
  
Shortly after, Seunghyun's knot forms. It rounds out inside him while Daesung _squirms_ atop it, just this side of uncomfortably distended...  
  
...And that's that. Until Seunghyun's knot releases, Daesung is truly stuck with him. Stuck _on_ him. Many mornings he has spent like this, waiting to leave the bed on Seunghyun's time rather than his own, and it's not so bad, really. With the both of them in it, their bed becomes the very best of traps.  
  
But today there is a new body atop his, a new head resting on his shoulder, Seunghyun's weight strangely absent, and Daesung wonders at it, this new and unexpected development. He may not know this wolf's weight, but his _scent_...  
  
He cracks his eyes open to a shock of lightning blond hair. And staring right back at him, Seungri's dark eyes.  
  
It is intense, the way the other boy watches him. Unfaltering, unwilling to back down even as Daesung meets his piercing stare with one of his own, just as penetrating. It sends a pulse of arousal down Daesung's body to his cock in a violent way, no longer caught fast in sleep like the rest of him but suddenly wide awake and ready for action, straining impatiently against his belly for a touch, just one touch, _any_ touch, from the other boy.  
  
His lips fall open a fraction, suddenly starved for a taste. And that is all the invitation Seungri needs.  
  
Daesung cannot say who moves first, Seungri diving into him for a kiss just as Daesung rolls to meet it. They bump noses inexpertly, and Daesung would laugh if he could, if Seungri would just give him the space-- it's like they are doing this for the first time ever, with anyone. When their mouths connect it is actually _painful_ , teeth catching and tearing a little on the fleshy insides of their lips.  
  
Painful, yes, but perfectly so. For one of their kind, what is passion without a little pain?  
  
From there it is no time at all before they are rutting wildly, hips grinding as each tries  to get off before the other, treating it like a race to the finish. Out of habit Daesung's legs fall open-- only a bit, but it's enough for Seungri, who wastes no time climbing between his knees and slotting himself into place.  
  
Too surprised by the move to do much more than buck against him, Daesung lets him. Lets Seungri line up their cocks so that every slide of sweat-slicked skin on skin sends up sparks between them, scorching them inside and out, the heat and urgency rising faster than Daesung can keep up with.  
  
He groans up into Seungri's mouth, utterly without shame, and Seungri replies in kind, pushing back into him a sound so raw, so _primal_ that Daesung just can't anymore. He _can't_. He fists the quilts under him and lets go and loses himself to their fevered breath mixing hot and wet, to saliva slicking their restless lips, to semen seeping out their cockheads and glazing up their hard lengths, glossed from root to tip--  
  
And it's _just_... _so_...  
  
It's clumsy, it's messy, fuck it, Daesung doesn't care, but Seungri does not move like Seunghyun and it throws him off his game, how the other boy keeps hands to himself, their only points of contact their lips and their dicks. It is strange and off-putting, he thinks, to feel so bereft of touch in the midst of this. Seunghyun's hungry hands let no part of him go unloved.  
  
Pulling away from Seungri's lips, he steals a peek at the source of the fire between them. All he really wants in this moment is to touch, to reach out and _take_.  
  
_The wolf way_ , Seunghyun's voice floats up to him from within, his mate's favorite guiding principle, and Daesung's lips pursed in concentration curl instead into a wicked grin.  
  
So he takes matters into his own hands; he snatches Seungri up and pumps his steadily weeping cock vigorously one, two, three, _four_ \-- four times, and that is all it takes for Seungri, only a few good strokes from the finish line. It's over for one of them.  
  
To Daesung's surprise Seungri comes quietly-- a sudden stillness and a sharp exhale, his mouth falling open as eyes fall shut. He is beautiful like this, Daesung thinks with what little brain function he has left.  
  
How has he missed out on this for so long? And why? He can barely recall. A moment later Seungri sags down onto him, beat, boneless, and Daesung groans again-- but this time in frustration.  
  
_Oh no you don't._  
  
" _Seungri_ ," he hisses, "Can you at least just-- hey. _Hey_ ," he urges, prodding at Seungri's hip until he gets the hint. Seungri sits up, swaying like he's halfway to sleep already, and swings a leg over Daesung's so that he straddles his thigh.  
  
Daesung glowers at the offering: a leg to get off against.  But he's too close to his own end to refuse it and so takes what he is given, jerking the other boy close and making the best of it. He just does not have the patience right now to wait for Seungri to regain his head-- and with it, his manners.  
  
After, when Seungri has rolled off of him and fallen at his side in a pile of limbs, sloppy and sated, Daesung blinks up at the ceiling as he absorbs what has just taken place here. That had been... god, _too_ fast, _too_ furious. As absurd as it sounds.  
  
So they have broken the ice at last, but Daesung needs something else. Something _more_. Even though he's just come, his body still boils over with a restless energy, nerves firing under his skin like insects crawling. He resists the impulse to unsheathe his claws and scratch the itch away. It never seems to help. Maybe he can work through it with Seunghyun later.  
  
Speaking of...  
  
The sensation of eyes boring into him prompts Daesung to turn; he finds Seunghyun regarding him lazily, _appreciatively_ , one eye open, the other buried in his pillow along with the other half of his face.  
  
Suddenly, from behind Seungri there comes a whoop and a holler.  
  
"Finally!" Jiyong shouts, rocketing upward with an excitement that startles everyone. He beams down at them, Daesung and Seungri both. "Congratulations! Fuck, you guys, I was wondering when you two would get over this--" he waves a hand in the air, "--this _thing_ between you."  
  
Seungri's eyes bug out. "You were watching?!"  
  
"Of course I was watching," Jiyong says matter-of-factly. Daesung, for one, is not surprised in the least; he knows by now to expect their alpha's voyeuristic tendencies. When in doubt, always assume Jiyong is watching.  
  
"Why?!"  
  
"What? Does that bother you? I thought you liked all eyes on you." He winks at Seungri, and Seungri responds by plunging face-first into his pillow, a blush climbing high on his cheeks and ears.  
  
It's... _charming_ , Daesung must admit.  
  
Beside Jiyong, Youngbae props himself up on his elbows to add, "I've gotta say though, that was a little painful to watch."  
  
Seunghyun grins. "Only a little?"  
  
"He's right." Jiyong pins Seungri with a stern look. "Daesung got you off, then you left him cold. Rude," he chides. "Return the favor next time."  
  
"Next time," Seungri says hollowly.  
  
"Jiyong, please," Daesung begs, face behind his hands in embarrassment.  
  
Youngbae looks between him and Seungri, clearly loving their matching states of mortification. "Could this be the beginning of the end of your awkward phase?"  
  
Seungri scoots away from Daesung, pointedly avoiding him. Without meaning to, Daesung does the same. The others mean well, they always do, but damnit, sometimes all they succeed at doing is making an already awkward situation infinitely _worse_.  
  
"No, wait! Come on, don't be like that," Youngbae sighs. Turning to Daesung as he says very seriously, "Quick, there's still time to save this-- put your hand on his dick again!"  
  
Before Daesung can reply he hears a "Come here, you" just before a hand cups his shoulder and pulls him over and down. It's Seunghyun, ready to take him back. He gathers Daesung up in his arms until they are huddled together, chest to chest.  
  
Daesung laughs. "Can you believe these guys?"  
  
Seunghyun gives him a knowing look. "Would you have it any other way?"  
  
"I guess not," Daesung sighs just as Seunghyun begins moving in on him. "This is okay, right?"  
  
"It's okay," Seunghyun hums against his lips. "As long as it's just packbonding. We'll have to lay down some rules, but... later."  
  
"Later," Daesung agrees, pressing into him, and before he gets too deep his ears catch Jiyong's despondent sigh from somewhere behind him.  
  
"Well, guys, that's it. We've lost him to Seunghyun, as usual."  
  
It is just the start of what promises to be another perfect day, Daesung thinks. Life may push them to the ground at times, but as long as the five of them are happy together nothing can keep them down.

 

 

\--

  
  
  
  
They have all seen snow before. Snow is not new to them. But snow like _this_... Well. This is snow as they have never seen it before.  
  
"Oh my god," Jiyong says, face gone slack with amazement as he opens the door to a world blanketed in white. "Where did this come from?"  
  
Youngbae hurdles past him, just a blur as he catapults himself into a deep bank of the stuff. The powdery snow explodes around him in a cloud of white, and the next second he is gone from sight, buried in it. With a cry of delight Seungri follows suit.  
  
"Weren't you expecting this?" Daesung sidles up to him to peer outside. They stand in the doorway like that, simply taking it all in.  
  
"I said winter would be _colder than usual_. I could never predict something like... _this_ ," Jiyong answers with a sweep of his hands over the spectacle before them. Daesung is not sure he has ever seen him so awestruck, so at a loss for words. "It's like a whole new world. Just... wow."  
  
"It's beautiful though," Daesung says softly. His breath appears in front of his face like smoke, only to fade to nothing a moment later, gone forever.  
  
But that is the beauty of it, isn't it? Just like his packmates and him, Daesung thinks, turning thoughtful. In the grand scheme of things the five of them are only temporary beings. They are here for a short while, nothing more. The time they will spend walking this earth is measured, their lives insignificant, fleeting things, like little lights burning hot and bright until the day they inevitably go out. That they are alive for any time at all-- long enough to learn and grow and suffer and, if they are so fortunate, _love_ \-- is a miracle all its own.  
  
His heart both swells with joy and aches with a deep sadness at the thought, the knowledge of his own finite existence both freeing and binding him. At the same time something else he cannot name-- something greater than him, something greater than all of them-- turns over and over inside him.  
  
He feels so very small.  
  
"Coming through!" he hears not a moment before Seunghyun skids between him and Jiyong, shoving them aside as he completes a mighty leap into the waiting snow. It surrounds him up to his knees, everything below as good as erased. His ankle has recovered fully, strong as ever, and Seunghyun is happy as can be to be back on his feet.  
  
He whirls around and shouts through an elated grin, "What the hell are you waiting for? Come on out!"  
  
Daesung shivers and shouts back, "It's cold!"  
  
"Yeah, it's great! Makes you feel alive!" Seunghyun laughs then, and he sounds absolutely crazy, and it is the most outstanding thing ever to grace Daesung's ears.  
  
So Daesung goes to him, hoisting his knees high as he wades through the snow and delighting in how his feet seem to disappear with every step. He arrives at Seunghyun's side and flashes him a brilliant, if shivery smile, the frigid air getting the better of him already.  
  
"Have you ever seen snow like this?" Seunghyun says, scooping up a handful of it. When he sees Daesung he does a doubletake. "Where's your coat?"  
  
Daesung grins sheepishly. "Probably inside, where I left it. _Ahhh_ ," he frets, rubbing furiously at his bare arms to warm them.  
  
Seunghyun's crazy smile softens, almost sickeningly sweet. "You're hopeless. And this time I actually mean it."  
  
" _You_ wanted me to come out here."  
  
"Whatever. You'll be fine. We'll get you warmed up once back inside." Something in Seunghyun's eyes shifts. "But first..."  
  
Daesung knows that look, has seen that gleam in his eye too many times to mistake it for anything else. He knows it well enough to sidestep just as Seunghyun lunges for him-- the other wolf's fingers miss him by inches-- and Daesung scampers away, laughing bubbling up and out of him as the momentum behind his leap sends Seunghyun faceplanting impressively into the snow.  
  
"Nice try!" he calls out, jogging backward.  
  
Of course, that is when something-- or someone, rather-- crashes into him from behind and sends _him_ toppling into the snow.  
  
"Oh! Sorry!"  
  
"I guess it was meant to be," Daesung grumbles a second before a violent, full-body shiver overtakes him. If he thought he was cold before, he feels like an icicle now.  
  
"Sorry," Seungri says again with guilty grin. "Youngbae and Jiyong were throwing snowballs." Something hits his back and bursts. He does not even flinch. " _Are_ throwing snowballs. Here," he says, offering Daesung a hand.  
  
For a very long, very _tempting_ moment Daesung considers bringing the other boy down into the snow with him... but ultimately decides against it. Seungri has enough on his plate with those two. Especially Youngbae, who becomes an absolute _demon_ in play. Besides, he is ready to leave the cold stuff behind and get back inside-- or at least dart in and out long enough to shrug on his coat-- because the sight of his packmates playing together like pups fills him with such light and love, a warm glow within that Daesung wants to hold onto forever.  
  
He accepts Seungri's hand.  
  
Seungri peers down the length of Daesung's arm, eyes catching for a fraction of a second on his new scars. His mouth opens, Daesung sees his tongue moving, but before he can say anything he shoves Seungri toward a Youngbae who lies in wait.  
  
"Thanks," he calls out, "Now go give them hell!"  
  
Seunghyun appears at his side, seeming sullen. With snow in his hair and on his clothes and sticking to his face, he makes for a pitiful sight. He looks at Daesung with a long face, as if his current state is somehow his fault.  
  
"Now look who needs warming up," Daesung says, darting in and pecking him on one icy cheek as consolation, even though he did nothing wrong.  
  
"Almost had you."  
  
"You can have me all you want later." Inside, warm and dry and wrapped in every last one of their stolen and salvaged blankets, comfortably _away_ from all the slush and the snow.  
  
Until then, it is Seunghyun's arm snaking around him from behind that warms him, even as a gust of frosty wind cuts across his face, turning his already cold nose and cheeks to ice. But Daesung is not especially bothered by it, not truly.  
  
If Seunghyun will keep holding him like this, he thinks he can brave the chill just a little longer.  
  
"I guess Jiyong's prediction came true... as always. A colder winter, huh," Seunghyun says, his hand on Daesung's back tightening briefly, a brush of fingers through the too-thin fabric of his shirt. "I hope it won't be a hard one."  
  
Daesung leans into him-- cold, certainly, but no less content. With his packmates tripping over and wrestling each other in the snow before him, and his mate a strong, solid presence at his side, Daesung breathes deeply, savoring the crisp air filling up his lungs. It awakens in him a sharp awareness of this world-- of _their_ world-- wintry, white, and teeming with hidden wonders yet to be seen.  
  
He plucks up Seunghyun's free hand, laces their frozen fingers together and says, voice steady with unwavering belief, "We'll be fine."

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> And that's a wrap! Thanks for reading, everyone. Unless something else-- possibly something small-- comes up in the indiscernible future, this series has come to an end. It finally feels complete to me, rounded out. Their story has been told and I feel like it's time to leave them alone and just _let them live_. ;) Plus I'd like to move on to other projects. Since its beginning this AU has had a tendency to be all-consuming... which suits its name quite well, doesn't it? _Carnivores_. I've talked about this just a bit and have shared an updated series timeline over at [Tumblr](http://daesungindistress.tumblr.com/post/156162661207/i-never-expected-this-now-that-im-calling-the) in case anyone is interested. 
> 
> Thanks so much for sticking with it-- for sticking with _them_ \-- through it all, through thick and thin. I've been honored to have you all along for the ride.


End file.
